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Two CoDies Received 

JAN II 1907 

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CLASS A '5<Xc,, No. [ 

COrY B.' 3 

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Copyright 

1906 

By Mildred B. Pierce 



CONTENTS 

Page 

'* Eastward Ho!" _ _ - _ - H 

A Modern Pompeii _ _ _ _ 24 

Quaint Old Yorktown - - - - 31 

Portal of The Past — Williamsburg - 46 

Old Bruton, Church of the Day Before 

Yesterday _ _ _ _ _ 65 

Imperial Richmond _ _ _ _ ']J 

Just Touching Upon Norfolk - - - 94 

St. John's Church, Hampton, Virginia - 102 




PREFACE 

'OWELL has said that " It is a high inspiration to be 
the near neighbor of great events." 
This strip of Virginia, of which Old Point Comfort 
is the tip, has been nearer than a neighbor to great 
events. It has been right at home — has furnished the 
arena for actions crucial, pivotal and of an ultimate importance 
to affect all Christendom. 

It comes in the nature of a surprise to many people that this 
peninsula rightfully wears the highest honors ^ Three wars, 
consequent losses and privations, and many fires have sacked the 
old libraries of this section and denied posterity much of its 
history which was never fulsome. The Adventurers were not 
primarily occupied in compiling data nor were they unduly in- 
terested in being the first. They were out for gold and made up 
in daring and romance whatever they may have lacked in statistics. 
Later generations revered Virginia history; but they were not 
engaged in writing it, talking it, preaching it; they were in the 
main pleasure-loving and ease-taking and carried no troublesome 
conscience concerning to-morrow. Consequently the adventure, 
fantasy, fortune, hardship, peril, famine, devastation, massacre, 
the initiative, the ceremony and the victories supreme, have not 
been needlessly heralded and are but vaguely recalled. 
The country at large is discovering the landmarks here, on this 
peninsula, pre-eminent in American History, and is anxious to 
visit and to learn. There is seldom the time, the inclination nor 
the opportunity to consult the histories, scattered and usually 
voluminous; and, yet, there is a desire for something authentic 
and fuller than the province of the guide book permits. So, — 
these little sketches are presented. They have been written after, 
not one journey, but many, to the places and there I have taken 
the pictures of the historic sites. Every effort has been made to 
verify through these personal visits and study of the authorities. 
Q I desire to make acknowledgment to Mr. George F. 
Adams, for it was he who suggested to me to make these ex- 
cursions and write them for The Cavalier, in which they were 
first printed, practically as they appear here. The historians con- 
sulted include: John Smith — History, Stith, Meade, Fiske, 
Campbell, Wilson, Yonge, Tyler, Cooke, Goodwin, Ford and 
others. 



To that sweet Virginian, Mary Coriing Dunlop — 
who has ever seemed to me to be the reincarnation 
of the Colonial belle, Mollie Ball of Lancaster, 
" verry sensable, Modest and Loving " — I dedicate 
these Shreds and Patches of Histor>^ 

M. B. P. 



Shreds and Patches of History 



"Eastward Ho!" 

Seagull. I tell thee that gold is more plentiful there than copper 
is with us ; and for as much red copper as I can bring I ' 11 have 
thrice the weight in gold. Why, man, all their dripping-pans are 
pure gold and all the chains with which they chain up their 
streets are massy gold ; all the prisoners they take are fettered in 
gold; and for rubies and diamonds they go forth on holidays 
and gather 'em by the seashore to hang on their children's 
coats and stick in their children's caps as commonly as our 
children wear saffron-gilt brooches and groats with holes in 'em. 
And then you shall live freely there without sergeants or cour- 
tiers or lawyers. Then for your advancement, there it is simple 
and preposterously mixed — you may come to preferment enough 
— to riches and fortune enough and have never the more villainy 
nor the less wit. Besides there we shall have no more law than 
consciences, and not too much of either; serve God enough, eat 
and drink enough, and enough is as good as a feast. 

Spendall. God 's me! and how far is it thither? 

|ED upon such fancies it is small won- 
der that the popular mind grew fever- 
ish with excitement and enthusiasm to 
colonize the fair, new lands of Vir- 
ginia. This comedy of Eastward Ho! 
had a record run in 1605, and was given 
to the public in book form, just three hundred 
years ago, when, to satisfy the demand, four edi- 
tions were exhausted between the first of Septem- 
ber and the end of that year. 

Ben Jonson had collaborated with Chapman and 
Marston to produce the play and the erroneous 
title tells the prevailing belief that America was 

11 




tied to the Orient. Seagull and Spendall were char- 
acters in the play. The quotation is from their 
nightly recitations which thrilled the London au- 
diences. The dialogue is vibrant yet with the in- 
vitation to a vision-land which fetters its prisoners 
with gold and has no overplus of law or conscience. 
The impulse is to exclaim with Spendall: "God 's 
me! how far is it thither?" Let 's away! 
Bearing such pictures in their minds, to what 
cruel disappointments and appalling disasters were 
they doomed, who sought the new country! What 
centuries and generations between the pledge of a 
wonderland and its fulfillment ! 
The first score years of settlement — anything but 
settlement — were a repeating record of devastation 
and decimation. As the results of folly, famine and 
massacre, the almost complete annihilation of the 
colony is told again and again, during twenty years 
of persistent efFort. Before the Pilgrim Fathers had 
stepped upon Plymouth Rock, near fourteen thou- 
sand had been the number of those coming over 
to the Virginia settlement. When the Indian mas- 
sacre was over, in 1622, nine hundred and eleven 
were the pitiful remnant with which a fresh start 
was made. The destiny of the colony hinged fre- 
quently upon such dramatic turns as would defy 
the most daring playwright. The follower of their 
fortunes grows to a reverent understanding that 
these people ** should be the means under God" 
to a power which should affect all Christendom. 
12 



Q America is greater, better and richer, than Sea- 
gull's boasting speech, though not so fooHshly ex- 
pressed. "In the windowless palace of rest" for 
three hundred years the Adventurers have slept; 
the James River has reached over a part of the 
Island to draw within her embrace certain of the 
sites of the dwellings of those first settlers, who, 
indeed, " builded better than they knew." 
It is pleasing that in fancy we may make the voyage 
and be with them when the joyful start was made 
down the Thames. It was a great day for even so 
blase a city as London. The throngs of people 
pressed to the farthest edge of the docks to shout 
hurrahs and bid '*God Speed!" Dryden was on 
hand with some verses which would never have 
been remembered for any merit of their own ; but 
he brought to rhythmic measure the favorite sen- 
timent that Virginia was "Earth's only paradise." 
Of the company on board ship there was none to 
be long esteemed, save John Smith. Captain Chris- 
topher Newport was in command of the little fleet, 
which was a blunder to begin with ; a better man 
was along in Bartholomew Gosnold, brave sea- 
captain. Evidently there was some royal pull which 
had supplanted Gosnold, who, by reasons of his 
energy in exploiting the venture and in having 
previously shortened the distance by a direct sail- 
ing to the American shore, was entitled to be hon- 
ored as admiral of the fleet. But, Newport was in 
charge of the three ships, the Susan Constant, the 

13 



Good Speed and the Discovery; they sailed south, 
the old course, by way of the Azores and con- 
sumed nearly six months from the day of leaving, 
Saturday, December 20, until the landing at 
Jamestown. They came within the Capes late the 
following April and skirted these shores until the 
second week in May, when they set sail up the 
James. 

Whether is was a bit of cowardice, fearing the 
discord; or a stroke of diplomacy; or a love of 
mystery; that King James sent them afloat with 
sealed orders, is not easily determined. Whatever 
the purpose, the fact furnished another picturesque 
incident when the landing was made at Cape Hen- 
ry, the cross set up and the box opened. The Ad- 
venturers could not wait until they should reach a 
place for settlement; but, the first available point 
of American shore was selected to enable them to 
satisfy their curiosity. With delicate compliment 
they called the place after the Prince and named 
the twin strip of land to the north, after Prince 
Charles. With what eagerness must they have 
opened the box containing their instructions! 
Whatever of chagrin or discontent they may have 
felt — there was only to obey — "The King can do 
no wrong." 

There has always been a question of the judgment 
which induced them to select the Island of James- 
town, then a peninsula, as the place of settlement. 
The letters preserved, which the gentlemen did 
14 



write, advise that by the order of the King, they 
were to go well inland to avoid molestation by the 
Spaniards. By the configuration of the then pen- 
insula, they were able to '* moor their ships to the 
trees in six fathoms of water." This point, thirty- 
two miles from the mouth of the James, appeared 
best to meet the requirements of the king and the 
colonists, and there the landing was made on May 
13, 1607, and in honor of his Majesty, they called 
the place *' James Towne." 

From start to finish, the Adventurers seem not to 
have done the thing they had planned. The first 
intention was to found the colony on the island of 
Roanoke, where ''Croatan," the unsolved enigma 
of early American history, was carved upon the 
guide-post tree. A storm drove the little fleet into 
the waters of the present Hampton Roads and the 
mariners accepted the guidance of fate or Provi- 
dence, as belief may be, and sailed up the James 
River. 

It was well where so much of ill was to befall, that 
the first sight of the land was fair; that the trees 
swung from their arms a tapestry of leaves, through 
which the sun burned in spots of gold; that the 
turf unrolled to the river's edge, a mat of velvet 
green, that the flowers stood sweetly by, lifting 
cups over-spilling with perfume; that the birds 
chanted a choral service; that the pines, solemn 
and stately, intoned a blessing, while from the 
bearded bloom of their boughs was breathed an 

15 



incense on the air; that the river challenged the 
sky for color — mute witnesses both of unknown 
days — in fact, it was May in Virginia ! If there a 
dusky face appeared, it was in the background and 
the Adventurers were well come to this new land. 
H It will be a long time before "James Towne" 
will again present so charming a scene; it is a 
pleasure to linger now with the Adventurers — 
there were for them so few joy days and so many 
calling for anguish and lamentation. It is easy to 
imagine how they must have rushed hither and 
yon, eager to see and do all at once — and the mar- 
vel of the unfamiliar! The first duty was to praise 
God. No skill of man ever framed more fitting 
temple than that cathedral in the virgin woods, 
when the trees stood apart that aisles might be, an 
old sail stretched above afforded the shelter for the 
congregation, and "a bar of wood nailed between 
two trees" ser\'ed as a reading desk for the devout 
Mr. Hunt. Surely the angels, ' ' ministers of grace, ' ' 
were very close to the worshippers, kneeling there 
in the great primeval forests with all the elements 
of the unknown surrounding. There the colonists 
met every night and morning and twice on Sun- 
days until the church was builded. The trees were 
felled first to make a clearing for the fort and later, 
the houses were put up within, ranging side by 
side, in angular fashion. They were thrown has- 
tily together and thatched with reeds. 
The Council was composed of six men, named by 
16 




The tree has spread its trunk as a protecting cloak about the tomb—See page 23 



the King. Men of good family, yes — but totally 
unfitted by nature or training for their duties. 
Barring Smith and Gosnold, it was the Council of 
the Incapables. Gosnold fell an early victim to the 
deadly fever, and the miserable jealousies of the 
others because of Smith, had made him their pris- 
oner, thrown under arrest on shipboard, charged 
with seeking to make himself *'King of Virginia." 
Edward Maria Wingfield was chosen president. 
He had to his credit the reputation of having done 
some good fighting in the Low Country wars with 
Spain; but, he has very much to his discredit, the 
most of all, that he had planned to seize the only 
remaining ship of the colonists and flee the country. 
John Kendall was the instigator of the move. The 
early American jury found this councilman guilty 
and administered summary punishment; he was 
shot. Wingfield was deposed. John Martin deserted 
and John Ratcliffe was a wicked disturber of the 
peace. Released from all restraints of family and 
traditions, the metal of the men was tested. The 
old letters of the Adventurers, which were com- 
piled by John Smith, and left a priceless legacy for 
future generations, leave no chance to misunder- 
stand the character of these councilmen. The ac- 
counts have all the more value since they were 
written freely without any thought of public sen- 
timent, then or thereafter. There is no whimp- 
ering for popular favor to be found in these epistles 
— they were impelled by the merciless truth of the 

17 



tragic situation, and they called a spade, a spade. 
Q In all the musty research there is great reward 
— perhaps no one thing more gratifying than that 
our child-worship of John Smith may stand; the 
study reveals him incomparable ! It would require 
a volume to tell the resources, the unfailing cour- 
age, the fascinating romance of John Smith, Gen- 
tleman. Those who have delved deepest into the 
past and have scrutinized every act and searched 
every record of the Virginia Colony, have not felt 
it too much to say that had John Smith failed the 
colony, then had our Republic never been. And 
too, the story of Pocahontas holds good — better 
than our belief! 

I spent hours, days, in the libraries studying these 
people, long since buried with part of their city, 
under the swift current of the James. I read every 
available thing written concerning this first set- 
tlement; and went back again and again to pore 
over the letters which the Adventurers had written. 
They became personal appeals to my sympathies. 
Through an intensified interest, I lived with them, 
was one of them. I worshipped with them under 
the old sail, I walked their few streets and ventured 
not far without the fort for fear, for deadly fear of 
the Indians. I helped to build the shacks, kindled 
the fires on these first hearthstones, was parched 
by the fevers, escaped the fires and massacres, lost 
my head with them in digging yellow dirt for 
gold, watched wistfully for the returning ships 
18 



with supplies, starved with them — from very frenzy 
of thought I would rush from my desk to escape 
the conviction that I was one of five to share ' ' a 
pint of barley sodden in water"; and rid me of 
the terror that my famished neighbor might kill me 
and eat me. I looked with wonder upon my present 
associates and environments — where were my Ad- 
venturers and the attending miseries of "The 
Starving Time"? The rapid transit of thought! 
I had spanned three hundred years and was back 
again in our own period of plenty. 
But, I wished to go to Jamestown. I wanted to 
step upon the ground, to localize in my mind the 
place of landing. It was a needless fear which I 
had harbored that a present civilization might have 
over-builded and that memory must look through 
and beneath toppling towers of commercial prog- 
ress to see the humble homes of the first colonists. 
Almost as silent and lone as then, now is the place. 
Posterity was careless of a precious trust. Long 
unhindered, the mighty current of the fast flowing 
river had crumbled the earth and dropped the 
fragments to the bed of the stream until several 
acres of the island have been obliterated, while the 
stretch which bridged it to the mainland has so 
long been engulfed that it has escaped remem- 
brance to say when. Scarred and broken grave- 
stones, a mouldering tower and the disintegrating 
foundations, are the pathetic decay of the desolate 
mecca. 

19 



Depopulation seemed the fate of Jamestown; for, 
when the Indians had been driven westward be- 
yond the power to terrify, the unhealthfulness of 
the place still obtained. With the establishment of 
other towns, the exodus began and the popularity 
of Williamsburg, the near-by Colonial Capital, 
drew to that center until but a handful remained, 
and finally two planters were alone in possession of 
the deserted city. The removal was complete in 
about the year 1700, and then the plough over- 
turned the land and the streets were lost in the 
fields of waving grain. The acres about the church 
tower were left unprotected but not obliterated. 
By the extinction of the congregation the church- 
yard had reverted to the state. The island passed 
through several ownerships, finally to that of Mrs. 
Barney, widow of the late Mr. Edward E. Barney. 
By deed of gift, May 3, 1893, Mr. and Mrs. Bar- 
ney conveyed to the Association for the Preserva- 
tion of Virginia Antiquities the twenty-two and 
one-half acres roundabout the historic tower. This 
society had, the previous year, acquired the rights 
to the tower and churchyard, through an act of 
state legislation. 

This Association has made noble efforts to preserve, 
protect, and as far as possible, to restore the fragmen- 
tary records as left in ruins and graves. So revered 
to them is their work that the dust of the several 
excavations has been literally sifted through their 
fingers, lest some precious evidence be lost. The 
20 



excavations are revealing treasured data whereupon 
to rebuild the buried city. Our Government has 
been interested to the extent of placing a retaining- 
wall, resisting the inroads of the river and protect- 
ing the Island from further encroachment. 
The first church which John Smith described as 
*'a homely thing like a barn, set upon crotchetts, 
covered with rafts, sedge and earth," was destroyed 
by fire in January, 1608, when most of the houses 
of the settlement went for kindling wood. Repairs 
were quickly made and probably there was sol- 
emnized the first English marriage on American 
soil, that of Anne Burras and John Laydon ; and 
a year later witnessed the christening of their daugh- 
ter, Virginia. Lord Delaware arrived in 1610, and 
set straight about renovating and improving the 
church. The record is that it measured sixty by 
twenty-four feet. The excavations have exposed 
the foundations of three churches, one within the 
other; the innermost gives evidence of being this 
church of timber, where all "the pews were of 
cedar, with fair, broad windows also of cedar, to 
shut and open as the weather shall occasion. The 
font was hewn hollow like a canoe. The church 
was so cast as to be very light within, and the Lord 
Governor caused it to be kept passing sweet, 
trimmed up with divers flowers. Every Sunday, 
when the Lord Governor went to church, he was 
accompanied by all the councilors, captains, other 
officers, and all the gentlemen, and with a guard 

21 



of fifty halberdiers in his lordship's livery, fair red 
cloaks on each side and behind him. The Lord 
Governor sat in the choir on a green velvet chair, 
with a velvet cushion before him, on which he 
knelt, and the council, captains and officers sat on 
each side of him, each in their place, and when 
the Lord Governor returned home, he was waited 
on in the same manner to his house." Fancy the 
pomp and ceremony of the vanished past of the 
fated first city ! 

Four years later than this spectacular church-going 
of his lordship, was the marriage of the American 
princess, Pocahontas, to the widower, John Rolfe, 
whose love for her had caused ' ' a mighty war in 
his meditations." Still three years later the colo- 
nists had neglected their church for the culture of 
tobacco. Again repairs were made, and in 1619, 
Sir George Yeardley called in convention the first 
legislative assembly in America and the body of 
law-makers sat in the choir of the church. Twenty 
years after that, the plan for a brick church was 
executed, 1639. To this building. Bacon applied 
the torch in the Rebellion of 1676; the charred 
debris of the fire is in evidence under the floor of 
the church and even the sexton's tools have been 
found by the excavators. The ruins of the brick 
foundations of a row of buildings, showing steps 
of cellars, have also been unearthed, which fit in to 
corroborate the belief that *'the one farthest from 
the river was the State House in existence in 1676, 
22 



and where Nathaniel Bacon contested with Sir 
William Berkeley and which was afterward burned 
by the Rebel and his forces.'* 
Between the graves of Dr. James Blair, ''Commis- 
sary of Virginia, and sometime minister of this 
parish," and that of his wife, Sarah Blair, a syca- 
more shoot crowded its way up, separating the 
tombs and finally shattering them. The growing 
tree carried with it a portion of the tombstone of 
Mrs. Blair to a height of ten feet in the air, firmly 
fastened, while clasping the boxing of the tomb in 
its trunk. The stone was dislodged a few years ago. 
During the Jamestown Jubilee, in 1807, this freak 
of nature was noted and recorded. The tree, now 
grown to gigantic height, has spread its trunk as 
a protecting cloak about the tomb and stands the 
sentinel of the ancient churchyard. Mrs. Blair was 
the daughter of "Col. Benjamin and Mrs. Hannah 
Harrison of Surrey. Born August ye 14, 1670, mar- 
ried June ye 2, 1687, and died May ye 5, 1713, 
exceedingly beloved and lamented," is the record 
by epitaph. This was the Harrison family which 
was later to give two presidents to the United 
States. 

Happily the patriotism to preserve Jamestown 
Island, was aroused before the river, rebuking the 
neglect of generations, had reached quite over the 
island to hide within her bosom the site where the 
Adventurers had made their landing, builded their 
churches, had given in marriage, buried their 

23 



dead, had instituted trial by jury, had made the 
first contribution to American literature and had 
convened in first legislative assembly — all before 
the Mayflower had sighted the barren coast of 
New England. 




A Modern Pompeii 

?T was not a molten stream from the 
burning pit of some smouldering vol- 
cano, which overswept this New World 
Pompeii, recently excavated — far from 
that! Nor, did modern progress ever 
demand the site for any vertical city 
of skyscrapers. Without conscious purpose on the 
part of man, the wasted island has remained a 
single choice and consecrated to its cradle destiny. 
C[ A sacrifice to utility, this first English city in 
America, was obliterated by the ploughshare and 
buried under fields of waving corn. It was not 
effaced in a moment, in the midst of affairs, in the 
zenith of its glory — for small glory did the miser- 
able beginning of anything so great as is America, 
ever enjoy! Even in its palmiest days, Jamestown 
was scarce more than a stopping place of officials 
on duty there and an aggregation of public build- 
ings. Then was the time of the real country places; 
there was the whole wilderness to draw upon and 
24 




A Monarch Sycamore Stands Sentinel of the Old Jamestown Churchyard— 5ee pas's 18 




Monolith of the Lonely Island is the Old Church Tower of Jamestown 



no one to oppose save the Indians. The boundary 
of Virginia then reached from ocean to ocean, east 
and west, and by its charter claimed two hundred 
miles to the north and two hundred miles to the 
south of Old Point Comfort. 

In the waning light of a single century, ** James 
Citty" succumbed to repeated disasters, disinte- 
gration, and finally yielded up the seat of govern- 
ment to proud little Williamsburg, which has 
come down to us a toy court, long reflecting the 
ceremonial of the mother country. The town of 
the Adventurers became mellow for the seed of 
corn and history. The current of the James en- 
croached and there was a double menace to any 
preservation of the landing place of John Smith 
and the first permanent English settlement. 
Measured by the ripened ages of the Old World, 
three hundred years is but a brief period from 
which to review the beginning — a beginning that 
is neither vague nor mythical. There is with us the 
singular advantage of a nation which is the out- 
growth of a matured, developed and Christian 
people — there is no harking back to obscurity, nor 
any figment of fancy, nor any evolution of a race. 
Yet, they were very careless of any record ^ A 
haphazard collection of letters, written by the 
Adventurers, and compiled by John Smith, that 
hero, who, had he lived in the according period 
had been dignified with the attributes of a god, 
is our first authority. The memory of man failed. 

25 



Tradition played tricks with truth .^ The eviden- 
ces through remaining buildings were destroyed 
because of the scarcity of material, which was 
carried elsewhere, while the foundations of the 
deserted place were soon hidden beneath the fertile 
fields. Little was left to remind, and for a long 
while it was not cared to recall the step-stone where 
so many had faltered and fallen, and where so much 
that was ill had overtaken ^ Thus, Jamestown 
slipped from remembrance and almost from the 
map; until, suddenly, we have awakened to an 
appreciation of everything pertaining to that first 
venture, which, estimated in results, is America, a 
Wonder Nation. 

Within the three intervening centuries much has 
been irrevocably lost. Still, a great deal that was 
believed effaced has been retraced, owing to the 
tireless research and toilsome task of Mr. Samuel 
H. Yonge, of the United States Corps of Engineers. 
He had charge of the construction work on the 
island which our laggard Government has been in- 
duced to place against the swift current of the James 
River. The voracious tide had lapped at the island 
until it was feared that the larger part, and certainly 
the stage of the dramatic first events, had been 
drawn under water to disappear in the bed of the 
river. 

In placing the sea-wall, the corner of an old foun- 
dation obtruded and, with this as a starter, Mr. 
Yonge set himself patiently to work. During the 
26 



two years that he was on Jamestown Island, direct- 
ing the building of the retaining wall, Mr. Yonge 
gave all his leisure time, to the end that our country 
is forever a debtor to his research. The excavations 
were begun, aided and abetted by the Association 
for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, and 
carefully carried forward with the result that James- 
town was unearthed, a modern Pompeii. 
It was certainly reckoning with the unknown for, 
aside from the little to be gleaned of Jamestown 
from the Adventurers' letters, but two descriptions, 
from personal knowledge, have been preserved. 
These refer, and that indifferently, to the place 
towards the close of its century, in 1676, and ten 
years later in the account of the Reverend John 
Clayton. With so little data at hand, the historians 
have barkened to tradition and yielded to easy 
supposition; which have proved mostly wrong. 
Mr. Yonge first calculated the cause and extent of 
the abrasion and scientifically proved that the pre- 
vious estimate of the wash had been too great ; also, 
the supposed location of the town was incorrect. 
Happily we may start upon the new century with 
a corrected page from the past. Even with the evi- 
dence accumulated through the excavations, James- 
town is scarce more than half-told. 
An island two and one-fourth miles long and not 
more than one and one-quarter at its greatest span, 
is the green base of the Old Church Tower. Five 
churches must be accounted for Jamestown; six, 

27 



if we include that service when a bar of wood 
nailed between two trees, served as reading desk 
and an old tent stretched above, provided shelter 
for the newly arrived worshippers who knelt there 
in the wilderness woods on the margin of the New 
World. The first two structures were within the 
Fort — the old chronicles tell of these, of their 
homely construction, of the fire which swept away 
the first within eight months of the landing, of the 
rebuilding and the happy celebration of the wed- 
ding of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, which we 
conclude must have taken place within the second 
sanctuary. 

So poorly put together were these houses of wor- 
ship that they were ever demanding repairs and 
rebuilding; it is somewhat difficult to keep trace 
and pace with their remodeling. But, in 1617, 
when Captain Argall came over he found a sad 
state of affairs as regards their place of worship. 
He has given ah account of a third church; he 
stated the dimensions: "fifty by twenty foote." 
Right gladly do we acknowledge this evident ten- 
dency to detail, on the part of the Captain, for it 
gives us a known quantity with which to work; 
and now begin the fascinations of the excavations 
as regards the church; for, we may fasten the date 
of this church of 1618 to the slenderest of the three 
foundations disclosed. And too, three sets of floor 
tiles have also been unearthed and the lowest of 
these we attach to the weak foundation of the 1618 
28 



structure, which, more than likely, was built of 
wood. Then, about twenty years later, on this same 
site, was the first of the brick churches builded. 
This edifice stood until the Bacon Rebellion and 
was then rebuilded, to be again destroyed by fire. 
Q So stoutly builded is the old obelisk, eighteen 
feet square and with walls three feet thick and 
of a probable height of fifty feet — so soHd and 
defiant is this tower that the conclusion is forced 
that there was a double purpose in its construction 
— it might protect from the assaults of the Indians, 
if need be, as well as from those of Satan. Since 
along about 1644, with the death of the Emperor 
Powhatan's brother, there perished the fear of 
probable attack from the Indians, it is argued that 
the Tower must have been set up before that date. 
Cf Within the nave and the chancel, paved with 
square bricks, is an indicated tomb, with a slab of 
iron stone which has been inlaid with brasses. No 
clew is there remaining as to whether this is a 
grave or cenotaph .^ The intaglio outline of a 
shrouded figure, the inscription plate, crest and 
strange device are missing in the brasses which 
channeled the stone and left the indiscernible sil- 
houettes to forever mystify us. 
A musket ball lodged in a skull, and with several 
buckshot therein imbedded, give grim testimony 
of a probable military execution. This was exposed 
along the river bank when the protection work 
aligned the island for the sea wall. And too, a 

29 



number of human skeletons were found lying in 
regular order. These are in part evidence that the 
old churchyard has been the same from the first. 
From the awful decimation of the succeeding Sup- 
plies, the whole island would scarce provide nar- 
row beds for those who went to sleep in death. 
There are many indications which go to prove 
that an extensive acreage was claimed for this city 
of the dead .5* The fallen walls of the last of the 
churches were, long years afterward, utilized in 
building a church wall around the fragmentary 
tombs remaining. 

The first legislative assembly convened within the 
third of the Jamestown churches — the inner foun- 
dation revealed through the excavations ^ Most 
things went the way of flame in those turbulent 
days, and four different State Houses, with frequent 
intervals of meeting in the taverns, are recorded. 
The third and fourth probably occupied the same 
foundations, which adjoin those of the Ludwell 
houses and the "Country House." These have 
been located and unburied. It was the corner of 
the foundation of the *' Country House," which 
jutted out in the construction work, and which 
led to these final discoveries and the disclosure of 
the New World Pompeii. 

A lady's riding stirrup, a thimble, a pair of scissors, 
a copper candlestick, a pipe and a candle — how 
personal becomes the interest and how human the 
sentiment respecting this ownerless trumpery, 
30 



found rusting in the cellar of one of the excavated 
houses! The fireplaces point to a provision for 
generous logs, there are supports for the porches 
— fancy takes a winged flight back to re-people the 
phantom house. The tract corresponds to that of 
the Ludwells — what dainty foot did this stirrup 
hold, over whose slender finger, long since mingled 
with the sacred dust of the island, did this thimble 
fit — was it the proud and haughty Lady Frances 
Berkeley, who deigned to yield her heart, but 
never the name of her former liege lord and mas- 
ter, when she married Philip Ludwell — a pipe and 
a bottle and the great fireplace — the thimble and a 
pair of scissors — the visions become sociable and 
inviting — would that we might know! That is 
forbidden; but cherished indeed are these relics 
which intimate of home and have long outlasted 
their owners, to bear testimony of the fireside. 



Quaint Old Yorktown 

jITNESS of a victory superlative! Prog- 
ress reached up and stopped the clock, 
forYorktown! The hour was high noon, 
and the day was the 19th of October, 
of the year 1781. History had a thought 
to there preserve unchanged a memento 
of the surrender of the British and the achievement 

31 




of American Independence. But the reckoning 
was without Time, whose stealthy hand has well 
nigh crumbled to dust whatever of a brave material 
showing the quaint little place had made up to 
that memorable period e^ The present quiet and 
serenity must be the very antithesis of the activity 
and agitation of the dramatic close of hostilities, 
there enacted. 

Pathetic in its senile decay, it is yet a happiness 
to find that no modern demand has ever over- 
builded the spot. All that is left belongs rightfully 
to the past. In the quest for the ancient landmarks, 
it is easier to peer through an overgrowth of bram- 
bles and vines than through an aspiring skyscraper. 
Fallen and disintegrating walls are not the barrier 
to the imagination which would reconstruct, as are 
bricks and stones, set plumb, and with the mortar 
still wet. 

Perhaps you have been to Yorktown — then are you 
familiar with its single street, and with the squat, 
little houses there aligned, which find their vanish- 
ing point at a distance of less than two city blocks ; 
when the country resumes the landscape and spreads 
fields of broom across to the banks of the widening 
river. Possibly you have made that turn in the road, 
where, from the shelter of the pines, you look across 
the white shore-line to the placid waters, repeating 
the marvel of the sky. Catching the first glimpse 
of Old Yorktown, you feel that you have crossed 
the boundary to another, to a foreign land. An 
32 




Quaint Old Yorktown— Its Single Street with the Squat Little Houses there aligned— See page 32 




The Corner of the Foundation of "The Country House' 



ambitious chart of the town indicates as many as 
three streets, and names them Main, Church and 
Keyes. The first two will explain themselves and 
where they are likely to be found ; but the third is 
lost in the confusion of picturesque ravines and 
marl cliffs between the Nelson Mansion and the 
Monument. Yorktown began a little late of the 
century, for, in 1705, it was platted and laid out in 
streets by that one of the Nelson family who was 
then known with affectionate familiarity as ** Old 
Scotch Tom." He was the founder of the family 
in America. The place grew to the proud com- 
mercial distinction of loading as many as seven 
vessels every year for England. The cargoes were 
the equivalent of money in the Old Dominion — 
tobacco. Here also was the port of entry for fine 
goods for the dealers in the then insignificant towns 
of Philadelphia and Baltimore ^ This was when 
William Nelson was the A. T. Stewart of York- 
town and the Amblers were his competitors. 
It is well to make the acquaintance of these old fam- 
ilies; we shall meet them again and again and grow 
to recognize them as neighbors, friends, kinsmen. 
Three generations of the Nelsons must be kept 
straight in the mind in order that no mistake be 
made. "Old Scotch Tom," as his name suggests, 
came from the country north of England, and 
founded this family at Yorktown, whose descend- 
ants, even unto this day, keep the name promi- 
nently before the public. He made two marriages. 

33 



The first was with an American girl. Miss Reid ; 
and the second time he succumbed to the fascina- 
tions of a widow whose name was Tucker. The 
elder of his two sons was Thomas, Secretary of the 
Colony, and the other son, William, was the Pres- 
ident of the Council. It was William's son Thomas 
who was the general and financier for Virginia in 
the Revolution. William married Miss Burwell, 
who was the granddaughter of "Old King Car- 
ter." I love to bring these people down by their 
nicknames — they give the distinguishing features 
in tabloid form. The baptismal name is frequently 
strange and confusing; for instance, who would 
recognize Mr. Robin Carter as the famous old 
colonist whose landed estates entitled him to the 
title and perquisites of a monarch ? 
In its palmy days Yorktown held not more than 
sixty buildings, but many of them were very ele- 
gant, with appointments in keeping. That they 
were stoutly builded we are satisfied by an inspec- 
tion of the sole remnant of that picture period, the 
Nelson Mansion «?* This was not "Old Scotch 
Tom's" residence; of that no evidence remains; 
but this was builded for his son William, who, 
when an infant in arms, took a conspicuous part 
in the laying of the corner-stone. He was held in 
the arms of his nurse and the bricks were passed 
from her apron through his baby fingers. Bishop 
Meade tells that this mansion was long the abode 
of love, friendship and hospitality. 
34 



We are reminded that at the time of the surrender 
the direst confusion prevailed; that fine furniture 
and rare and costly books were scattered about the 
streets from the ransacked houses ; that the soldiers 
and their horses lay dead, neglected or half buried 
in the trenches and mounds which the shells had 
torn and thrown up ; and that in no place was there 
safety from the searching fires of the allied batter- 
ies. It is also recalled that the patriot Nelson, fearing 
this mansion, the finest and most conspicuous in 
the place, might be occupied by the British, offered 
five guineas to every gunner who would strike it 
with his fire. He preferred rather that it should 
be shelled than to meet such a fate. That it with- 
stood the siege is evidence of a house put up to 
stand. 

With the subsequent retrogression of Yorktown, 
was the passing of any material prosperity. Two 
years before the American victory, the capital had 
been removed from Williamsburg to Richmond, 
to the lasting disadvantage of Yorktown. When 
the great event of Independence achieved had its 
one hundredth anniversary, but two hundred and 
fifty inhabitants were left to Yorktown, and of 
these more than one half were of the black race. 
Perhaps one dozen white families would constitute 
the present population. 

The day when I last went to Yorktown, when I 
rode from Williamsburg there, I dropped the pres- 
ent from my reckoning and I was one with the 

35 



past. I met, passed and greeted, in the friendliest 
way, those unseen ones of bygone days. I strained 
my ear to catch the hoof-beat of the impetuous 
riders, and my heart throbbed tumultuously with 
hate or loyalty as they revealed themselves to me 
in scarlet uniforms or the Continental blue and 
buff. Then I swept away the vision of war J' In 
truth, two lazy horses were creeping on apace, 
under the slapping rein of my would-be-sociable 
driver. He had exhausted his store of small talk 
with the information that *' mos' folks admires bes' 
de Yorktown road," leaving me to infer that any 
other road entering into competition must be that 
to Jamestown. 

I turned for entertainment to the figure riding be- 
side me and noted only by me — straightway the 
journey became romantic, sentimental. I was a 
Colonial maiden. I was not very definite whether 
I belonged to the Amblers, the Pages or the Bur- 
wells. I was, too, a little confused respecting gen- 
erations ; but since there was none to correct me, 
I might fancy as illogically and unchronologically 
as I chose. It pleased me most to associate myself 
with the Nelsons and claim them my forbears. I 
lived in the old mansion, only it was not old, but 
the finest in the town. 

I was returning from Williamsburg, at this unreal 
time, and I confess that my silly young head was 
turned with all the gaities in which I had been in- 
dulging ^ I had been to the playhouse, for the 
36 



Hallams had come over from England and had 
played their '* First Night" at the theatre facing 
the Palace Green .^ And there had been grand 
assemblies at the Governor's Palace; ah! they had 
been joyful times ^ Fancy assisted me from my 
seat in the unpretentious vehicle to one upon my 
favorite horse; and, Cinderella-like, my later-cen- 
tury dress had vanished and in its stead was one of 
Colonial fashion. The gallant w^ho rode beside me 
wore a splendid waistcoat and had rufBes of lace at 
his wrists; his knee-breeches were of blue broad- 
cloth, his stockings were white, and enormous 
buckles fastened his shoes ^ His hat was three- 
cornered and silver-laced, and his hair was tied 
with a broad ribbon. He was whispering sweet 
nothings to me in the most elaborate and stilted 
phrases. I was his fascinated listener. I was promis- 
ing to dance the minuet with him that night at the 
the ball — I was promising that — and more. 
The shops at Yorktown were displaying dainty 
sprigged muslinets and dimities, coloured striped 
silks, jaconets and cambrick, plain and tamboured, 
and an elegant assortment of callicoes and chintzes, 
some silk marseilles and printed veilings; silver 
grey lustrings; also, extra long, plain and nett 
white silk gloves. I stopped to admire these and 
decided upon breadths of flowered gauze and a 
pair of white satin slippers as my purchases. 
Then again, it seemed charming to me to pretend 
that I had written the letters which a Union sol- 

37 



dier, during the Civil War, had found while ran- 
sacking the Nelson Mansion. Could I have fore- 
seen the error and confusion which these letters 
created in after years, then would I have been 
more explicit and plain as to the identity of this 
Mary Ball, whose beauty and social triumphs I 
recorded. Now, however, my lips are sealed to 
secrecy and I may never disclose who was she, 
**the comliest Maiden." It must be recalled that 
I wrote these letters — of the faded and musty old 
packet, which the soldier found — in 1727, the last 
year of Governor Spotswood's administration. The 
splendid new palace had been builded for him, 
and the adventurous cavalcade over the Blue Ridge 
had been made by the Knights of the Golden 
Horseshoe. It was indeed an halcyon time in which 
to enjoy belle-ship in the Colonial Capital. I regret 
that my foolish letters should be sealed within the 
corner-stone of the Mary Washington Monument 
for they had not referred to the Mary Ball of 
Lancaster, who was the mother of Washington. 
You see I had written '' Dear Sukey " that: 

Madam Ball of Lancaster and her sweet Molly have gone 
Horn. Mama thinks Molly the comliest Maiden She Knows. 
She is about 16yrs old, is taller than Me, is verry sensable, Mod- 
est and Loving. Her hair is like unto Flax. Her eyes are the 
colour of Yours and her Chekes are like May blossoms. I wish 
that you could see her. 

While I was still sojourning in wraithland and was 
wrapped in the warmth of a revivified spring, with 
38 



the sedge in bloom and all the air afloat with fra- 
grance, I was recalled to the present fact that my 
journey was at an end; that I had reached my 
stopping place — not the " Swan Tavern," but one 
so quaint and olden as to be its worthy successor, 
the Yorktown Hotel. 

On the crest of the hill, overlooking the beautiful 
York River, is the marble shaft in token of the 
glorious victory ^ Before I reached there I had 
passed a dilapidated box-like house which served 
as the first Custom House in the United States. 
Just beyond is the Nelson Mansion, where the 
hedge and wall put up a protecting screen before 
the aristocratic old place. Beneath the vulgar paint 
of later generations will be found the grain and 
finish of the fine woods employed in its construc- 
tion. The size of the rooms, so spacious, has re- 
mained unaltered through the cycle of change 
which even ran through the plebeian round of a 
boarding-house. During the Revolution, General 
Thomas Nelson literally gave all for his country, 
and retired from the conflict practically penniless. 
This place he saved from the public sale of his 
effects, which included even the family Bible and 
the stand upon which it rested. Bishop Meade tells 
that when visiting in a mountain parish in Vir- 
ginia, he found the Nelson Bible, but so highly 
did the family then in possession of the book prize 
it that no amount of persuasion on his part could 
induce them to part with the treasured relic. The 

39 



reminiscences of Bishop Meade as compiled in the 
''Old Churches and Families of Virginia" were 
published in 1857, and he gives the time of the 
discovery of this Bible as the year previous. 
The little church at Yorktown is another trophy 
of hoary time. Not a column, not a single orna- 
ment has been employed in its decoration ; severely 
plain, the modest edifice does not even aspire to 
the semblance of a belfry ^ The walls, all that 
remain of the earlier church, which was destroyed 
by fire in 1815, are most unusual. They suggest 
enormous, solid stones, four of them so placed as 
to form the enclosure. Marl from the river bank 
had been molded into blocks and set for these 
walls, which the action of the elements had hard- 
ened into an indestructible substance. The subse- 
quent fire which defaced the church, cemented 
the walls into a stone-like mass, still standing. 
The church is near the river, immediately back of 
the little Yorktown Hotel. The decay and want of 
care, particularly in the churchyard, are pathetic 
and lamentable. The graves of the Nelsons are 
here; that of "Old Scotch Tom," William, the 
president of the Council, and that of General Nel- 
son, his son. I felt sure that the one enclosed with 
the iron pickets was the grave of the founder of 
the family; but a thicket of brush and a tangle of 
vines had so overgrown the tomb that I could not 
make out the inscription. I soon discovered for my 
convenience, a soap-box; and, looking farther 
40 




Sole Remnant of that Picture Period, the Nelson House— See page S'f 




Temple Farm— ^ee page 44 



afield, I found an old broom; with the box to 
stand upon and the broom to sweep clear the top 
of the marble slab, and holding back the overrun- 
ning branches, I traced the chiseled record. It is 
in Latin and tells that : 

Here lies, in the certain hope of being raised up in Christ, 
Thomas Nelson, Gentleman, the son of Hugh and Sarah Nel- 
son of Penrith, in the county of Cumberland. Born the 20th 
of Februrary, 1677. He completed a well-spent life on the 7th 
day of Oct., 1745, in his 68th year. 

That of his son, William, *' President of his Maj- 
esty's Council in this Dominion" is much more 
fulsome. Indicating the mournful variations of for- 
tune, that of General Thomas Nelson, the eldest 
son of the third generation, is a grave unmarked 
and its place disputed. There is a story told that in 
one corner of the church walls, the vault was made 
and only a slab left lying in the grass to record the 
place. This is a fable. When Bishop Meade was 
making his researches there were persons then 
living who remembered the spot and led him to 
the grave of the General which was close by that 
of his father and grandfather. 

It taxes one's credulity to understand how any one 
could have ever accumulated a fortune in York- 
town; and yet, William Nelson, merchant, did this. 
The bulk of his wealth went to Thomas, his eld- 
est son, and he, in turn, donated the estimated 
forty thousand pounds which had been his heritage, 
to the Patriot Cause. He was the financier during 

41 



those perilous times and obtained for the State of 
Virginia, upon his own credit, vast sums which 
the State could, under no circumstances, then have 
secured for itself. This generosity was thankfully 
received — and soon forgotten. 
Demure, neglected and unpretentious as is the 
little Yorktown church and with memories mostly 
sad, there is yet a pretty story kept, relating to one 
of its pastors, the Rev. John Camm. The tale is 
of the John Alden and Priscilla type, but to my 
way of thinking, it is decidedly more clever. This 
divine, who doubtless droned his doctrines and was 
probably deadly dull, since he was a preacher, 
a teacher and a bachelor, had claims for distinc- 
tion. He was a Tory preacher, one of the leaders 
in the "Parson's Cause," which helped to make 
Patrick Henry famous. And he was, too, the Pres- 
ident of William and Mary College. Of his con- 
gregation were Miss Betsey Hansford and a young 
man, so desperately in love with her as to have no 
thought for the parson's talk. When, however. 
Miss Betsey turned a deaf ear to his pleadings and 
said him *' Nay," he besought the preacher to bring 
the scriptures to bear upon the obdurate young 
woman. The Reverend Camm was conscientious 
in his zeal for his friend and visited the young lady 
frequently, urging her to accept her suitor. Miss 
Hansford finally suggested that it would be well 
for the parson to go home and read his Bible and 
she further advised that the light might break in 
42 



upon his understanding if he were to look at the 
twelfth chapter, the seventh verse of the II Book 
of Samuel. Mr. Camm obeyed her injunction, 
and found the significant words, *'Thou art the 
man." ^ He understood and they were married. 
Now, it seemed to have been one of the strict con- 
ventions at that time that the professors of William 
and Mary should be unmarried men. This wedding 
of the Reverend John Camm and Miss Betsey 
Hansford was deemed an infringement upon the 
customs of the College, and it was plainly given 
out that thereafter, the marriage of any member 
of the faculty would vacate his office. 
While the Yorktown monument is beautiful, pleas- 
ing in design and proportions, and the bas-relief of 
figures encircling the shaft, is particularly fine; it 
is claimed that the memorial is insignificant in 
expressing the importance of the event. A monu- 
ment which could fittingly stand for an achieve- 
ment so great as is American Independence, must 
reach high heaven and have for its base the whole 
United States. It might also be remarked that there 
is another site twelve miles across this same penin- 
sula which is still unmarked by our Government; 
and yet, it is a landmark taking precedence of all 
others in our country. A crumbling church tower 
is the sole monolith on Jamestown Island to mark 
the site of the first permanent English settlement 
in America, without which there had been no 
victory at Yorktown. 

43 



Following for a mile or more along the picturesque 
shore from the Monument, "Temple Farm" is 
reached. The old house is shorn of its two wings 
and stands a weather-beaten structure, facing York 
River. Memory sees more than the eye and restores 
the once spacious home of Governor Spotswood. 
Then the wings were as large as the center build- 
ing ^ The house has taken on no ornaments nor 
any modern excrescences and is now well pre- 
served and looked after. The present owners hos- 
pitably open the doors for all who wish to stand 
within the room where the mighty compact was 
signed. At that time the place was owned by a 
widow by the name of Moore. Two hours was the 
time granted by Washington to Cornwallis for the 
cessation of hostilities and within the room at the 
right of the hall, the famous generals met. 
We go back to a happier period than that of war 
to find warrant for the name of "Temple Farm." 
The tradition is that that gallant knight, he of the 
Golden Horseshoe fame, is responsible and that 
this very dwelling was the summer home of Gov- 
ernor and Lady Spotswood ^ Here, where the 
Scotch broom tosses its thread-like grasses, where 
the teasing tide has torn the shore into deep ravines 
and where the river spreads majestically to meet 
the Chesapeake Bay — they recuperated their forces 
after a too strenuous season at the "Palace" in 
Williamsburg. 

On this farm was one of the early churches be- 
44 



lieved to have been builded by Governor Spots- 
wood. In the tall grass may be found the old brick 
foundations and down the once center aisle, now 
matted with grass and vines, a solitary tomb re- 
mains in the wilderness of undergrowth. This 
church was the temple and hence the name for 
the farm. There is evidence to confirm the belief 
that Governor Spotswood builded this edifice with 
the thought of being finally interred in this sacred 
spot. 

Fifty years after the treaty had been signed there, 
a Mr. William Shield purchased the farm and has 
left a letter relative to the "Temple." He says: 

I purchased the farm and moved there in 1834, at which time 
the walls of the Temple, from which the place takes its name, 
were several feet high; within them, after removing the ruins, 
I found heaps of broken tombstones, and on putting some of 
the fragments together, to ascertain if possible, the names of 
some of the people buried there, I succeeded in finding the 
name of Governor Spotswood, showing that he was buried at 
Temple Farm, — a fact not generally known. There was one 
tombstone, however, entire and unbroken. 

When I was last at Temple Farm, the "one tomb- 
stone entire" was there, not unbroken, for vandal 
relic hunters were chipping away parts of the stone 
until the date is becoming defaced. The pity of 
this appeals to all those who so wish to preserve 
the antiquities of our country. Earlier than any of 
the marked graves at Jamestown or Plymouth, is 
this solitary one in the undergrowth of brambles 
and vines on Temple Farm. Easily legible is the 

45 



inscription, graven so long ago — 1655, and we 
wonder who was the gallant young gentleman 
whose sole record, so far as I have been able to dis- 
cover, is preserved in this stone which reads : 

MAJOR WILLIAM GOOCH 

of this parish 
Died October 29, 1655 
Within this tomb there doth interred lie, 
No shape, but substance, true nobility, 
Itself, though young in years, just twenty-nine, 
Yet graced with virtues moral and divine. 
The Church from him did good participate. 
In counsel rare, fit to adorn a State. 



Portal of the Past — Williamsburg 

]HEN you go to Williamsburg, if you 
have not been there before, you will 
doubtless be possessed by one of two 
moods: you will either be protesting 
that all such visits are non-fulfilling, or 
in the complacent and satisfied frame 
of mind of the one who frequently does this sort 
of thing and knows just what to expect — in either 
case you are bound to be disappointed — happily. 
Even if you acknowledge to a fondness for prying 
along history's haunts, you will not be prepared for 
the evidence, "given under hand and seal," to 
46 




be found in the little old Colonial Capital. There 
is nothing like it in all our country, and be they 
never so charming, no others can quite match the 
mingling of romance, mimic pomp and splendor 
of that picture period when, across the broad At- 
lantic, was here reflected the mirage of England's 
Court. Nor, can any other city claim as intimate 
association with so many of that illustrious galaxy 
of names, imperishable, immortal, in the annals of 
our nation ! 

Except Yorktown, which had never the same social 
distinction, and whose memories are mostly those 
of war, I can think of no place where it is so easy 
to get back to the beginning as at Williamsburg. 
As of yore, the Duke of Gloucester Street unrolls 
its length, a fine highway, from the site of the old 
Capitol to William and Mary College, one mile 
distant. The weather-worn sign designating this 
thoroughfare still hangs on the corner of the quaint 
little Court House, which was patterned by Chris- 
topher Wren. In all the intervening years there 
has been no need for another to usurp the suprem- 
acy of the Duke of Gloucester Street. The *' Pal- 
ace Green" and the "Court Green" have each 
their lane-like roads and footpaths on either side 
and are a part of the original plan of the Colonial 
City. Every name runs to history and brims over 
with delightful suggestion — the Duke of Glouces- 
ter Street ! — the Palace Green ! — the Court Green ! 
— memory puts in a thread or two and the fasci- 

47 



nated fancy plies a busy shuttle, 0[ When I went 
first to Williamsburg, I carried with me a rather 
hazy recollection of any claim it might have for 
attention. There is small wonder for this. The 
right and righteousness of the Puritans and Pil- 
grims and their sacrificial lives to one grand pur- 
pose had been drilled into me as of paramount im- 
portance. As a child, I had looked upon them, 
good men and women, as a mournful lot of mar- 
tyrs, refusing any joy in this life and with narrow 
chance of any hereafter, according to their doc- 
trines. I regarded the early years of colonization 
and settlement as deadly dull and uninteresting. 
Meager mention was made of the Jamestown set- 
tlement and there was nothing seemingly worth 
while doing in this peninsula until the Revolu- 
tionary War, when by mere accident of birth, many 
patriots sprang from this quarter. I loved the short 
paragraphs devoted to the John Smith rescue by 
Pocahontas and ignored any question mark relating 
thereto ^ I cherished a secret admiration for 
Nathaniel Bacon, "The Rebel," but otherwise 
my enthusiasm flagged; so much so, that when I 
passed a scarcely creditable examination — but still 
had passed — I closed the history, wishing never to 
open it again ^ It is not strange therefore, that 
Williamsburg to me was a blank, and I venture the 
assertion that nine out of ten who go there are in 
the same state of vacuity — that is when they go for 
the first time — after that it is another story. 
48 




The Little Cottage where "Audrey" had stood at the steps when the moon was Shining 
Full and had Stooped to Pluck the Hyacinth for " Ha-ward "— iSec page 64 




William and Mary College 



I went first to the Inn. It stands on the Duke of 
Gloucester Street with a fine frontage along the 
Court Green. The Inn itself is nothing antique, not 
more than twenty years to the good and a portion 
of it not so old as that. It is not the successor to 
the famous Raleigh Tavern, which site is farther 
up the street and now held by an embryo depart- 
ment store — anything so modern where the past 
dominates, touches upon the grotesque, as you will 
understand once you have been there. It was right 
at the Inn, before I had registered my name, that 
my interest was quickened ^ Why had so many 
people of note, scholars, authors, educators and 
the highly cultured made pilgrimages to this little 
town ? ^ Evidently its atmosphere is correct for 
writing; Mary Johnston had studied well the place 
and had found it rich with suggestions and the 
very setting for her charming story, as did Ellen 
Glasgow. When she was writing The Voice of the 
People she took up her abode at the Inn and 
simply lived Williamsburg. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 
Marion Harland and many another writer had 
drawn upon the quaint little city for material and 
inspiration. This was very interesting. As I was 
laying down my pen and turned to look about me, 
then I felt the antiquary fever begin to burn in my 
veins; through the doorway I caught the gleam of 
shining brass and silver and rich mahogany — and 
too, I fancied I saw the unmistakable outlines of 
some genuine Chippendale furniture! An investi- 

49 



gation proved this true — originals! In the low- 
ceiled library the furniture was all of the aristo- 
cratic wood of two hundred years ago. These are 
not the results of any collector's fad, but have come 
down in the family of the present owner, by be- 
quest. I walked into this room and dropped into 
a low chair before the open fire and straightway 
entertained covetous thoughts. I noted the brass 
andirons and fender; also slender bars of brass sup- 
ported by iron braces, projecting from the fire, 
whereon a rotund teakettle of brass steamed with 
hospitable intent — a contrivance entirely new to 
me, and I had to call for information, and learned 
that it was a ' ' Footman ' ' which, with the entire 
fire sett, once belonged to Colonel Wilson Miles 
Gary, officer under the King of England and a 
member of the House of Burgesses. This Wilson 
Miles Gary was not the father, but the brother of 
that Mary Gary, who had won the early admira- 
tion of Washington. It is therefore not improbable 
that this feted belle of Virginia may have toasted 
her dainty toes before the fire, resting her feet on 
this very fender, all the while dreaming of the 
handsome and gallant young soldier who had so 
frankly admitted her charms. This brother of hers, 
Wilson Miles, had inherited not only the estates 
of their father and an uncle, but also those of two 
brothers. 

Near the fireplace of this interesting room stood a 
desk of mahogany, of a rare old design. The drop- 
50 



leaf was well braced to open and shut in a most 
unusual fashion. There were secret drawers to fire 
the imagination and to incite one to a wishful 
search for a lost letter of love or a missing will .5* 
There were work-stands, secretaries, a genuine 
Chippendale table, with some fine old silver, and 
a buffet whereon stood tall silver candle-sticks 
and prized pieces of china. Knowing that even 
the copies of the famous Chippendale chairs to-day 
sell for fifty dollars and upwards, and recalling the 
fact that an offer of one thousand dollars each had 
been made for genuine antiques of this pattern, I 
sorrowfully put up my slender purse which I had 
been willing to barter, railway ticket included, 
and decided that these treasures were mine only 
to look upon. 

I had no desire to take in the sights logically nor 
by the measure of time, but just to wander about 
at my own free will and absorb as much of the 
story and data as well I could. Within a few yards 
of the Inn, across the Duke of Gloucester Street, 
is an octagonal structure with an extravagant waste 
of roof in proportion to its walls ; this I recognized 
as a Colonial symptom and made haste to visit the 
place. I secured at the Inn a key of such a size as 
to suggest blood-curdling responsibilities — this I 
took timidly in my hand and went over to unlock 
the door of what was once a powder magazine and 
is now an incipient museum. Here was presented 
the embarrassment of one key and a dozen or more 

51 



keyholes — which was the one? I mentally num- 
bered them and tried each in turn to finally find 
the combination. Although I have been there any 
number of times since, I never am able to tell just 
which is the proper one and must go the whole 
performance over again. It pleases me to carry that 
great key, just as it pleases me to sit before the 
Gary andirons and footman — they are vibrant with 
the past. 

The door opened on creaking hinges into a single 
room, eight-sided and with a diameter of quite forty 
feet. Standing within the high-pitched structure, I 
could peer through almost to the finial ball, forty- 
seven feet above. The fallen, and falling, plaster 
from the walls has mapped not only all the countries 
known but many yet to be discovered. The room 
was bare and empty, save a diminutive old table 
which had held the work of hands long since 
folded in eternal rest; and a small show-case, en- 
closing a list of articles, treasured for various mem- 
ories, mostly those of age «^ A few pictures hung 
upon the walls, several coats-of-arms and much 
emblazoned heraldry. Through the stained glass 
windows the sun poured into the lonely, deserted 
room and fell in great purple and ruby stains upon 
the floor ^ A portrait window I noted at once; 
memorial to my favorite, the Jamestown "Rebel," 
Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. It had been placed not so 
many years ago by the descendants of the illustri- 
ous man. Another is there to perpetuate the mem- 
52 




Portrait Window in the Powder Horn. Memorial 
to Nathaniel Bacon, Jr.— See page 52 




The Site of the House of Burgesses and the First Capitol of America— See page 55 



ory of Sir Alexandre Spotswood. I came out, locked 
the door and walked round about the strange struc- 
ture and proceeded forthwith to learn every possi- 
ble thing about the Powder Horn. 
Back to the year 1714, I must go to find a starting 
point — this was pleasing, for it brought the con- 
struction within the rule of that fascinating knight, 
Sir Alexandre Spotswood, the Governor of the 
Colony. He had come over from England but four 
years earlier and was then thirty-four years old ^ 
This vigorous young man belonged to the strenu- 
ous type — although then it was variously called by 
other names. His pent-up energy found expression 
in contentions with the House of Burgesses, in 
becoming the first of our *' Captains of Industry " 
through developing the iron resources; he busied 
himself with wine-making, bringing over a lot of 
Germans for this purpose, and he spent his spare 
moments in attempts to educate and Christianize 
the Indians. Indeed, upon investigation, so exci- 
ting and masterful and withal so lovable did Sir 
Alexandre reveal himself, that I found rnyself 
sharing with him the previous devotion which I 
had singled out for Nathaniel Bacon, Jr. ^ I was 
gratified to discover that some of his surplus en- 
thusiasm had gone into the design and order for 
this Powder Horn. Of course, it was built through 
an Act of the House of Burgesses, but Spotswood 
was the instigator of the move J' Originally this 
building was purposed for a complete magazine, 

53 



with powder-room, armory and blacksmith shop, 
and was surrounded by an outer wall parallel with 
the many-sided house. This was during the reign of 
King George the First. Not until sixty years later, 
when the Third of the Georges was on the throne 
of England, did the Powder Horn come up for 
dramatic setting in the history of the Colonies. Sir 
Alexandre Spotswood had administered affairs 
through a period quite golden in the annals of 
Virginia; he had led his famous cavalcade to the 
Blue Ridge Mountains, establishing the "Knights 
of the Golden Horseshoe," the first of American 
Orders; this gallant knight had finished his work 
and had gone out forever from the Colonial Pal- 
ace at Williamsburg to **the windowless palace of 
rest." ^ ^ 

A succession of governors had followed and now 
was the last, Lord Dunmore, arrogant, hot-headed 
and unloved ^ The relations with the mother 
country were strained, even when Lord Dunmore 
arrived; and he was not the one to mend matters. 
They tried to patch things up and when, in 1774, 
Lady Dunmore with her distinguished daughters 
arrived, the compliment of a grand ball was de- 
cided upon. The Countess of Dunmore with Lord 
Fincastle, the Honourable Alexandre and John 
Murray, and the Ladies, Catherine, Augusta and 
Susan Murray, had stopped awhile in New York 
City, en route to Virginia. There they had been 
the honor guests at a magnificent reception, which 
54 



took place in the ** Province Arms." It was in- 
cumbent upon the little Capital to extend an equal 
courtesy. It is quoted that Lady Dunmore was a 
very elegant woman; that her daughters were 
'*fine, sprightly, sweet girls. Goodness of heart 
flashing from them in every look." The Capitol 
was the place of assembly for this brilliant func- 
tion. The invitations were extended in the name 
of "The Honourable House of Burgesses, to wel- 
come Lady Dunmore and the rest of the Gover- 
nor's family in Virginia." 

The Virginians were — well, Virginians — and the 
ball went merrily on with no attention lacking on 
the part of the hosts; but there rankled in their 
breasts a growing resentment and indignation 
which was only for that night smothered. The day 
previous to this entertainment the Burgesses had 
been assembled in the Council Chamber of this 
same Capitol to have his Excellency, Lord Dun- 
more, address them as follows: 

Mr. Speaker, and gentlemen of the House of Burgesses, I have 
in my hand a paper published by order of your house, con- 
ceived in such terms as reflect highly upon his Majesty and the 
parliament of Great Britain, vv^hich makes it necessary for me 
to dissolve you, and you are dissolved accordingly. 

Later there was a meeting in Raleigh Tavern and 
out of it grew the proposal for a General Congress 
of the Colonies. 

Think of Williamsburg in June — in June — more 
than one hundred years ago ! Bring back the Pal- 

55 



ace to face the Green, reaching to the Duke of 
Gloucester Street! Fancy, if you can, that meeting 
in old Bruton Church on that day, the First of 
June, 1774, when the people fasted and prayed and 
arrayed themselves in the vestments of mourning. 
It was George Mason who wrote bidding his fam- 
ily, the *' three oldest sons and two oldest daugh- 
ters to attend church in mourning." And what 
was it all about? — the Boston Tea Party. Virginia 
was wholly sympathetic with the Massachusetts 
Colony, and things at Williamsburg were not at 
all harmonious for the Royal Governor, Lord 
Dunmore. Then something more happened up in 
Massachusetts, at Concord, and left the date, April 
19, 1775, with the initial and never-to-be-forgot- 
ten. Again Virginia expressed the warmest sym- 
pathy; more, announced herself as ready to join 
for action. Patrick Henry had proclaimed: "The 
War is inevitable — let it come." 
As a matter of precaution, so he claimed, under 
the cover of night. Lord Dunmore had removed 
about twenty barrels of gunpowder from the Pow- 
der Horn. Then was another history day for Will- 
iamsburg, when the crowd surged up and down 
the Duke of Gloucester Street, muttering threats 
and making demands ^ The Governor with his 
family retired within the Palace, and as a measure 
of safety, he had rows of muskets placed conven- 
iently near. There he was hunted down and ad- 
dressed as follows: 
56 




The Crumbled Foundations of the Capitol are Level with the Ground— Williamsburg 




The Old Powder Horn Showing the Spotswood Window— See page 59 



My Lord : — We beg leave to represent to your Excellency that 
the inhabitants of this city were this morning exceedingly alarmed 
by a report that a large quantity of gunpowder was, in the prece- 
ding night, while they were sleeping in their beds, removed from 
the public magazine in this city, and conveyed under an escort 
of marines, on board one of his Majesty's armed vessels, lying 
at a ferry on James River. 

We beg to represent to your Excellency, that this magazine was 
erected at the public expense of this Colony, and appropriated 
to the safe keeping of such munition as should be lodged from 
time to time, for the protection and security of the country, by 
arming thereout such of the militia as it might be necessary, in 
case of invasion and insurrection, and they humbly conceive it 
to be the only proper repository to be resorted to in times of 
imminent danger, etc. , etc. 

The Virginia Gazette of April 22d has the full text 
of the plaint. 

The Governor promised that the powder should 
be returned within one-half of an hour ^ With 
Patrick Henry, to say was to do, and at the head of 
one hundred and fifty armed men, he had set out 
for Williamsburg, whereupon Lord Dunmore 
drew from a man-of-war at Yorktown a detach- 
ment of soldiers and marines as a guard to the Pal- 
ace and to the Governor. He also communicated 
to the Honourable Thomas Nelson, President of 
his majesty's Council in Virginia, his fear of an at- 
tack. Lord Dunmore urged that everything should 
be done to quiet the people ; since, if molested, he 
should feel it necessary to fire the town. Colonel 
Carter Braxton successfully arbitrated the matter 

57 



by persuading Patrick Henry to accept and Lord 
Dunmore to pay, an indemnity of three hundred 
and thirty pounds sterUng for the powder. It did 
not deepen the trust of the people in their Gov- 
ernor to find several barrels of powder buried under 
the floor of the old Powder Horn; a discovery 
made when a committee of citizens had forced 
open the doors of the magazine. The situation was 
not pleasant and Lord Dunmore set up a floating 
place of government on the man-of-war lying off 
Yorktown. He never went back to Williamsburg. 
Q And what of the old Powder Horn in the years 
that have gone between — it has run the gamut of 
experiences! It was claimed as well suited for a 
market-house and so used for many years. Then, 
for a long time, it was a school, after that, aspiring, 
it became a church for those of the Baptist faith. 
The Reverend W. A. R. Goodwin, rector of Bru- 
ton Church, in his researches, has found that it 
was leased for a period of ninety-nine years, for the 
nominal sum of one dollar, and that it served as a 
place of worship until 1856, when lo! the pendu- 
lum of change swings far aside. This floor where 
the impetuous had trampled, where dickering buy- 
ers had stood, where the feet of droning scholars 
had idly swung, where the pious had knelt, was 
turned over to tripping measure and dance; from 
the dramatic, the practical, the serious to the gay, 
the Old Powder Horn was to enjoy a season as 
a dancing school J- And this was to last until 
58 



another war should riddle the peninsula, and the 
arsenal should revert to its original purpose ^ 
The Confederates used it to store their arms and 
ammunition. Then came a condition most lowly; 
the Powder Horn became a stable, and finally was 
rescued by the Association for the Preservation 
of Virginia Antiquities, and converted into this 
reliquary. 

Little treasure-town of history is Williamsburg, 
Virginia ! I was not prepared for the possibilities of 
charmed retrospection to be indulged by a pro- 
tracted stay in the little city of the ' ' Middle Plan- 
tation." Many things forgotten and many more 
never known, claimed my fascinated interest; and 
I had thought that a day would satisfy — when a 
week, a month, a year even, would not suffice to 
call back to an unchanged haunt the spirit past! 
Within the limits of this sketch it is impossible to 
more than touch upon the multiple memories fos- 
tered in Williamsburg; love, war, romance, senti- 
ment, patriotism, royalty, democracy, comedy, 
tragedy — whatsoever one wills of history, is there at 
one's bidding. The greatest marvel of it all is that 
so little of the modern meddles, and the plan of 
the town, the houses, the church, and all the no- 
table structures have deviated but little from the 
original plan e^ It is true that the Capitol is gone, 
destroyed by fire, many years ago. On the crest of 
the hill stood this edifice, twin stage with Faneuil 
Hall, of Boston, for Revolutionary oratory. The 

59 



crumbled foundations are level with the ground ; 
but the floor plan is easily traced and the dimen- 
sions marked. It is not difficult for the imagination 
to conjure the superstructure, where was the forum 
for Patrick Henry's eloquence and where Wash- 
ington served his first term as member of the 
House of Burgesses — his record is not a distinctly 
brilliant one, but excuse lies in the fact of his pre- 
occupation in his bride, who was the charming 
widow, Martha Custis. They were spending honey- 
moon days at her town place, the "Six Chimney 
Lot," just beyond the Powder Horn. 
It is related that Governor Nicholson was respon- 
sible for the removal of the seat of government 
from Jamestown to the Middle Plantation. The 
tempestuous love affair of this very unpopular Gov- 
ernor of Manhattan Island, who had been with- 
drawn from the New York Colony and transferred 
to Virginia, is full of whimsical romance. It was a 
belle of Williamsburg who fixed his fancy. Miss 
Burwell, and here is suggested for your diversion, 
one of the many sentimental chapters of the early 
days. It is also said that this same Governor Nich- 
olson had something to do with the planning of 
Williamsburg, and that, in compliment to the new 
sovereigns, William and Mary, it was proposed to 
lay out the town in the form of a W and M. There 
is no present indication of any such plan, and this 
should probably be pigeonholed with that other 
tradition: that Williamsburg suggested a plan for 
60 



the Capital City, Washington. Q In 1692, William 
and Mary College was founded; and a staggering 
guess at English history, will indicate the royal 
pair interested in establishing in Virginia this school 
of divinity. This was the second university set up 
in America; Harvard was the first. It has been 
facetiously remarked that the purpose was ' ' to 
make all Indians Episcopalians and all white stu- 
dents clergymen." The teachers were appointed 
by the Bishop of London, and the faculty usually 
had as members such of the clergy as England was 
pleased to be rid of. Commissary Blair went over 
to solicit a charter and secure contributions. He 
met with opposition from Attorney-General Sey- 
mour, who exclaimed when Blair urged that the 
people of Virginia had souls to save — *' Souls! 
damn your souls, make tobacco;" evidently a man 
more practical than religious. For the first edifice, 
Christopher Wren was the architect, and the first 
commencement exercises were held in 1700. De- 
spite the pious purpose for which it was founded 
there is record of the questionable diversions of the 
students, who ' ' kept race horses, bet at billiards 
and other gaming tables." They are reported as 
indulging in the wicked pastime of cock-fighting, 
now and then, and indeed, their hilarity reached 
the ears of the Bishop of London, who was obliged 
to write his Virginia clergy **not to play the fool 
any more." It is the proud distinction of this col- 
lege to have trained in letters, twenty-seven men 

61 



who served in the Patriot Army; four of its grad- 
uates were signers of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, and three became presidents of the United 
States. 

The ** Palace" of the governors went the way of 
flame, long years ago; but the oblong stretch of 
sward still reaches from the portal to the Duke of 
Gloucester Street, as in the stately days of two 
hundred years ago. What pictures of royal festivi- 
ties and imperial ceremonies may be called forth 
by a contemplation of the site of the old Executive 
Mansion! Facing the green, on one side is the 
fine old home of Governor Wythe, which divides 
honors between the associations as the headquar- 
ters of Washington, during the Revolutionary 
War, the residence of the noted Chancellor of 
Virginia, and the fiction which Ellen Glasgow has 
woven about the old place in her novel. The Voice 
of the People. Cornwallis' headquarters were in the 
splendid Colonial mansion, in the College Campus, 
the present home of Dr. Lyon G. Tyler, president 
of William and Mary College, and the son of 
President Tyler. 

Very interesting indeed, is the account of the first 
theatre in America, which had its setting in Will- 
iamsburg. The players sailed from England in 
April, 1752, in "The Charming Sally," which 
cast anchor in the York River and sent word to 
Governor Dinwiddle for permission to produce 
their plays at the Capital. This was granted. It was 
62 



a gala first night, when, the following June, the 
Hallams appeared upon the stage of this first the- 
atre, alongside of the Palace Green. The plays 
presented were The Merchant of Venice and Gar- 
rick's farce, Lethe ^ It is told that Master Lewis 
Hallam, who afterward became a celebrated Amer- 
ican actor, and was the first to take up the manage- 
ment of the theatre after the Revolution, was but 
a youngster at this time. He had only a single line 
to repeat, but when he appeared before the nota- 
ble audience, he was overcome with stage fright, 
stricken dumb, and bursting into tears, fled from 
the stage. Adam Hallam, a favorite actor in Eng- 
land, was the father of William, Lewis, George, 
and Admiral Hallam, of the Royal Navy. William 
Hallam organized and financed the company 
which sailed in ''The Charming Sally." t^ Lewis 
Hallam and his wife were players, with them were 
their two sons and their daughter who was later to 
become the great stage favorite, Mrs. Mattocks. 
The cast included Messrs. Rigby, Malone, Bell, 
Singleton, Addock, Miller, Clarkson, Hulett and 
Mrs. Becceley, Mrs. Addock, Mrs. Rigby and 
Mrs. Clarkson. 

For several months they gave performances in 
Williamsburg, meeting with the greatest success 
and the most enthusiastic encouragement. It was 
in this playhouse, along the ''Palace Green," that 
Mary Johnston's fancy brought Audrey to appear 
before a brilliant company: 

63 



Audrey, dressed in red silk, with a jeweled circlet like a line of 
flame about her darkly flowing hair * * * * t^g gifj yyjjQ 
could so paint very love, very sorrow, very death; the girl who 
had come strangely and by a devious path from the heights 
and loneliness of the mountains to the level of this stage and the 
waiting throng. 

Just beside the site of the first theatre is still stand- 
ing the quaint cottage, with its dormer windows 
peering toward the vanished palace ; all of history 
and sentiment that has heretofore attached to the 
place has yielded to the designation of "Audrey's 
House." Standing in the hallway and glancing up 
the low mount of stairs with its guard-rail grace- 
fully wrought in spindle fashion, one almost ex- 
pects the heroine of Mary Johnston's story to ap- 
pear on the landing. The picture of her gorgeous 
theatre attire on that last fated night, comes in- 
stantly to mind and how she had stood at the 
steps, when the moon was shining full and had 
stooped forward to pluck the hyacinths for Ha- 
ward which he, in turn, reverently kissed and 
pinned upon the folds of her gown with the gol- 
den horseshoe, token of his journey to the "End- 
less Mountains" — a very sweet fiction! 
The many-paned windows of this cottage are of 
glass of a texture unmistakably ancient and of 
a durability which has puzzled the most expert of 
the modern manufacturers. One window is there, 
bearing an inscription which has served to tanta- 
lize every beholder and has suggested the material 
for more than one story. On the diminutive pane 
64 




The Site of the First Theatre in America, at WilHamsburg, Ya.— See page 64 




Old Bruton, Church of the Day Before Yesterday—See page 66 



is written: ** 1796— Nov. 23— O fatal day!" His- 
tory has no record to tally with the fatal day and 
the conclusion runs naturally to sentiment ^ An 
overwhelming wish possesses one that from out the 
ghostly procession of the past, might pause the 
unhappy one who had written, " O fatal day," to 
whisper the secret never told. There are other ro- 
mances belonging to this cottage and to other 
edifices of the toy throne, redolent with memories 
by residence and visitation of the distinguished 
real and the witching unreal. There is enough to 
pique the curiosity and tempt the historian and 
tourist to stop for rnore than a day in this little 
treasure-town of history. 



Old Bruton 

Church of the Day Before Yesterday 

N the tranquil twilight of antiquity 
stands Old Bruton Church of the little 
Colonial Capital, It measures its length 
on the Duke of Gloucester Street, 
where an arm of the cruciform reaches 
almost to the steps from the highway. 
The end of the cross is toward the '* Palace Green " 
and over it the ivy has wrought a tapestry of fade- 
less weave, with only a break where a circlet win- 
dow presents prismatic colors to the sun ^ The 

65 




tower loftily faces in the direction of William and 
Mary College. The wooden belfry is set atop of 
the brick square, like a telescoping beehive, and 
while not structurally the same as the sanctuary, 
the effect is in nowise incongruous. The rains of 
years have washed the bricks to vanishing tones. 
The great white shutters put up against windows 
which frame the small, square panes in use in the 
days of yore ^ Roundabout is the churchyard, 
hemmed in by the seamed and weathered wall, an 
ivy-covered boundary, fully one-third the length of 
the "Palace Green." 

Unlike other reliquaries of the past, there is no 
must, mildew or mold; nor is there gloom and 
accompanying darkness about Old Bruton; it is 
open on every side to the sun and air. Neither is 
there anything awesome in the atmosphere — rather 
is all sweetly sacred and of a serenity which sug- 
gests the calm of moonlight. Architecturally, and 
too, in the placing, the fine old structure has an 
indefinable charm and invitation. I have been there 
when the dead leaves matted the mounds, when 
bare boughs strung crude celli for wailing winds — 
when gray November was drear. I have been there 
when was the wedding of the wild flowers, where 
the trees arched a tender leafage and the birds sang 
the marriage hymn. And, too, when the sensuous 
summer was in full maturity and bestowing her 
favors with a profligate waste and abandon, I have 
looked down the flagstone path of the old church- 
66 



yard ^ Again, I have been there in the dusk of 
the night when the taper stars burned on the 
high altar of the heavens, when phantom breezes 
swung the flower-censers at the foot of Nature's 
chancel, when cool and silvered was any gleam of 
light in the enfolding shadows — still the varied 
charm held. Aside from any hallowed associations, 
in and of itself. Old Bruton is a lovesome thing! 
Q Across the beautiful river of York, over in Glou- 
cester County, that delightful old lord of the 
manor, ''Rosewell," advised his son to "Think it a 
long art to die well," and further commented, 
" You have but a short time to learn it; you can- 
not be robbed by death of the time or years already 
spent because they are already dead to you ; and 
that which is yet to come is not yet yours." 
It is fitting that this earnest and pious man, he of 
the wise philosophy, should have been moved to 
donate the ground whereon this sacristy of history 
should be founded; wherein worshipped so many 
who were adepts in the "long art" — those who 
were masters in the arts of living well and dying 
well and all praise be to their great names forever! 
In the treasured old vestry book is this record: 

I, John Page, doe oblige Myself My heires, Executors to pay 
or cause to be paid, Twenty pounds sterling to the Vestry of 
Bruton Parish, for and towards building of a Brick Church att 
Middle Plantation, for ye sd Parish, upon demand. Witness my 
hand this 14th, day of November, 1678. 

67 



Also I do promise to give land sufficient for the Church and 
Churchyard. 

JOHN PAGE 
Abraham Vinckler 



Richard Curteen '' 

This was two years after Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., 
''The Rebel," had set " James Citty" a-smoul- 
dering. Of course there was an earlier church than 
this one of brick for which John Page had con- 
tributed the land. By an old vestry book is the ac- 
count, 1665, when a structure in Bruton Parish 
furnished the model for a place of worship in an- 
other of the Virginia parishes. It is, however, to 
the one to which John Page and his brethren had 
subscribed their pounds sterling, and upon which 
foundation the present structure stands, that our 
interest is fastened. For the first of these, a certain 
George Marable was the contractor. It was com- 
pleted on November 29, 1683, and the edict issued : 

Whereas ye Brick Church at Middle Plantation, is now fin- 
ished, It is ordered yt all ye Inhabitants of ye said Parish repair 
hither to hear divine service. 

The dedication was on the 6th day of the follow- 
ing January, with the Reverend Rowland Jones 
in the pulpit. Three years after this, in 1686, a 
committee was appointed to ascertain the cost of a 
steeple and bells, and to procure donations for the 
same. So is the complete picture of the first of the 
brick churches for Bruton Parish. 
And why is the name ? Even an alert memory fails 
68 



of a clew, and we are forced to conclude that the 
honor is to the Ludwells. A tomb at the door of 
the Church records that: 

Under this Marble lieth the Body of Thomas Ludwell, Esq., 
Secretary of Virginia, who was born in Bruton, in the County 
of Somerset, in the Kingdom of England. 

Because the malaria and the mosquitoes bothered 
and Williamsburg was in every way more desirable 
and healthful, the arbitrary Sir Francis Nicholson, 
that governor remembered for his unfortunate love 
affair, ordered the seat of government removed to 
the embryo city of the Middle Plantation. In the 
year 1699, the stamp of royal approval was im- 
pressed, and now begins Bruton as the rightful 
successor of the Jamestown Church and peerless in 
its subsequent history as the Church of the Episco- 
pal faith longest in continuous use of any in Amer- 
ica. By the time of the removal of the Capital, the 
little edifice, which had been dedicated fifteen 
years earlier, had undergone many repairs and 
frequent renovation. Before its age should be dou- 
bled the worshippers became aware that the sanc- 
tuary was not in keeping with the prestige of the 
growing Capital. Considering the expense which 
had been put on the old house, talk of a larger 
structure was agitated, and a levy of twenty thou- 
sand pounds of tobacco was ordered to go toward 
the building of a new church ^ That gallant Sir 
Knight of the Golden Horseshoe, Governor Al- 
exandre Spotswood, was engaged in drawing plans 

69 



which he submitted to the vestry with the record 
that they were approved. 

The year earher than this, 1710, the Reverend 
James Blair was elected minister of Bruton. It is a 
distinguished record which he left in being thirty- 
two years rector of Old Bruton, fifty years Presi- 
dent of William and Mary College, and fifty-three 
years Commissary of the Colony. In his letter of 
acceptance Dr. Blair acknowledges many obliga- 
tions to the parish of James City, and explains that 
only his impaired health, which he feared in age 
might become infirmity, and the long winter jour- 
neys, induced him to entertain the thought of 
leaving the first settlement ^ We conclude that 
Commissary Blair must have held fond memories 
of Jamestown — possibly he was married in that old 
church, for it was two years after he had been sent 
over by the Bishop of London to become a mis- 
sionary, that he wedded Sarah, the daughter of 
Colonel Benjamin and Mrs. Hannah Harrison, 
and there she was buried, departing this life con- 
siderably in advance of her liege lord. This prob- 
ably explains why he was entombed at Jamestown 
despite his long ministry in Old Bruton and hon- 
ored association with William and Mary College. 
Q It is pleasing that through the vestry book and 
certain State papers, the most minute and detailed 
description of the dimensions, cost of material and 
workmanship of the present church maybe learned. 
There seems to have been a trust among the brick- 
70 



makers and a conflict with graft even in that early 
day; but the Honourable Alexandre Spotswood 
may be counted upon for prompt action in every 
emergency. He proposed to deliver the bricks at 
so much per thousand and so "beat down ye ex- 
travagant prices of workmen." On December 2, 
1715, is the gratifying report that: "At length the 
new Church is finished." 

Evidently the members had taxed themselves in 
the building of this edifice, for shortly afterward 
it was determined to repair the churchyard in the 
cheapest manner; emphasizing the same by spelling 
both cheapest and manner with capitals. Along in 
1774, an organ was secured, and five years later 
the wall was builded about the yard. More than 
a score of years had passed before the belfry was 
added, and it was near a century forward ere the 
town authorities moved to have a clock placed in 
the tower. The day is not remembered when the 
wheels of the old time-piece ceased to turn. The 
face crackled and the stiff hands pointed always to 
the same hour, until a modern miracle was wrought 
— a leap in time was made — the past overtook the 
present; the sleeping clock awakened and the 
dumb was made to speak. I chanced to be in Will- 
iamsburg and I was told that the work of restoration 
had touched the old clock and set it a-going; that 
I might hear it strike that evening; after all these 
years of silence. I almost feared to listen — I dreaded 
lest a clangor or jarring note should ring out over 

71 



Bruton churchyard; but, sweet and mellow as its 
memories, sounded the stroke whose vibrations the 
echoes hastened to gather and carry afar. 
Bruton fell heir to Jamestown's few treasures. 
Beautiful trophies in old silver, and the font from 
which Pocahontas is said to have been baptized, 
were bequeathed. The very first silver service was 
given to Bruton in April, 1694, when his Excel- 
lency, Sir Edmund Andros, Knight, was pleased 
to present a fine silver server. The Jamestown com- 
munion sett comprises a chalice of unusual size, 
inscribed on the side: ** Mixe not Holy Thinges 
with Profane," and under the foot the words: 
*' Ex dono francisci, Morrison Armigeri, A. D. 
1661." On the patten is the same inscription; 
while around the rim of the Alms Basin, ' ' for the 
use of James City Parish Church," is the dedica- 
tion. Dainty and exquisite is another silver service 
in the custody of this Church — the "Queen Anne 
Sett." The chalice is a true loving-cup with han- 
dles and a cover e^ This and the patten are both 
washed with gold and covered with a delicate 
tracery of leaves, beautifully chased with device of 
private arms. A third sacramental service is the 
*' King George Sett," which includes a tall flagon, 
a chalice and an alms basin. They are engraved 
with the royal arms between the initials, *'G. Ill 
R." and also bear the motto: " Honi soit qui mal 
y pense." 

Other cherished relics are the old bell and the 
72 




Beautiful Trophies in old silver, the Jamestown, the Queen Anne 
and King George Sacramental Setts— 5ee page 12 




Three-Fold Historic— the Grave of the Cust s Children 
at the corner of Old Bruton, with the Font from which 
Pocahontas is said to have heen Baptized, resting on 
the Tomb— 5e«? page 74 +♦**•* 



parish register. The bell has engraved thereon the 
name of the donor and the date of the gift. It was 
in 1761 that James Tarpley presented this bell to 
Bruton Parish. A priceless treasure is the old parish 
register which not long since was recovered from 
a box of waste papers. It is believed to have been 
hidden there for safe keeping in the vandal days of 
civil strife. It is lamentable that leaves from the 
front and back have been torn away, and so is the 
record cut short. However, mutilated as it is, it 
still preserves a precious register. From 1739 to 
May 21, 1797, the baptisms are marked; from 
April 13, 1662, to December 8, 1761, is the record 
of death. 

The greatest ornaments of this church were the 
illustrious men who worshipped here. Through- 
out the regime of the English Governors there 
was pomp and circumstance to please the most 
ceremonious. The pre-Revolutionary period fur- 
nished abundantly of the picturesque. It is not 
alone with the picture but with the mighty results 
that we are impressed »^^ It was an immortal 
galaxy of men who here bended the knee in sup- 
plication. The church took its turn as legislative 
hall and provided the forum for master minds who 
wrought first for freedom. The burning principle 
flamed into inspired speech with the result that our 
Nation is. Again, when another great issue was 
decided by the sword, the sacred house turned 
hospital to receive the wounded and dying of two 

73 



armies — American. <J A notable vestry was that 
which included the names of Daniel Parke, the 
Hon. John Page, '*The Immigrant"; Thomas 
Ludwell, Secretary of State; Sir John Randolph, 
Peyton Randolph, King's Attorney and Speaker 
of the House of Burgesses; Robert Carter Nich- 
olas, Treasurer of Virginia; and Major Robert 
Beverly, Attorney and Clerk of the House of Bur- 
gesses — these are listed for Old Bruton. 
Worshipping here was Washington, serving his 
first term in the House of Burgesses and just after 
he had made the Widow Custis his bride. Two of 
her small children, born to Daniel Parke Custis, 
her first husband, and dying before her marriage 
to Washington, are buried within an arm of the 
cross which Old Bruton outlines in the church- 
yard. The illustration is threefold historic, show- 
ing the grave of the Custis children at the corner 
of Old Bruton, with the font from which Poca- 
hontas is said to have been baptized, resting on the 
tomb. When Washington occupied the house of 
the patriot, George Wythe, as his headquarters, 
during the Revolutionary War, he was doubtless 
a communicant of this church. 
When the students of William and Mary were 
assigned a special place in the gallery and, insur- 
ing their presence throughout the service, were 
locked therein, Thomas Jefferson was more than 
likely of this number. Since church-going was the 
vogue, Rebecca Burwell was probably prompt in 
74 



attendance, and the lank, sandy-haired youth who 
languished for love of her, presumably found his 
temporary imprisonment more bearable since it 
afforded the opportunity to gaze unrebuked upon 
the object of his affections ^ How industriously 
these lads employed their time and pocket-knives 
is still in evidence upon the railing of the gallery. 
Patrick Henry came in time to occupy the richly 
canopied and elevated pew from which Lord Dun- 
more had sulkily retired. James Monroe, John 
Tyler, Chief Justice Marshall and Edmund Ran- 
dolph all worshipped here, when not one had cap- 
tured his title, but all were studying at the royal 
college. George Wythe, William Wirt, George 
Mason, Edmund Pendleton, Benjamin Harrison, 
Bland, Lee, and other members of the House of 
Burgesses, made up the notable audiences. 
The peace of the churchyard, so quaint and olden, 
invites to a calm and meditation most solacing. If 
ever you have chanced to be there in May or June, 
when the leaves, all crinkled and tender, have pat- 
terned a new tapestry and spread upon the sward 
and over the white tombs, their intangible drapery 
of lace; if you have walked down the flag-stone 
path, through that ancient resting-place, and paused 
to note the sun glint into the darkness of the dusty 
green mantle of ivy, which overhangs and winds 
about the oriel window of the old-time edifice, and 
have stood by the graven tombs of those who have 
so reposed for more than two hundred years; you 

75 



will bow to the benediction of beauty serene and 
history hallowed. And in this plot of the day before 
yesterday, it is sweet to wander about at will, no- 
ting the elaboration of detail and the stilted, volu- 
minous inscriptions on many of the tombs. Grief 
has made its lament, faith has affirmed in confi- 
dence, the sinner acknowledged his miserable 
plight, and love has made its declaration in weather- 
worn rhyme. When dear old Reverend Servant 
Jones laid in her grave in Bruton churchyard, his 
consort, in the first hours of his grief he framed a 
fitting expression of his estimate of his departed 
companion and pledged an abiding devotion ^ 
He counted not that love's rebound is swift and 
the means of transportation, in those days, deplor- 
ably slow ^ So, when the inscription was finally 
carved on her tombstone, it was shipped from 
Richmond and a teasing trick, tradition has it, fate 
did play, since on the self-same boat was the par- 
son on his second wedding journey. Over against 
the wall, under the shade of friendly trees, is set 
up the monument and engraved in stone are the 
unchanging words: 

If woman ever yet did well 
If woman ever did excell 
If woman husband e'er adored 
If woman ever loved the Lord 
If ever Faith and Hope and Love 
In human flesh did live and move 
If all the graces e'er did meet 
In her in her they were complete 

76 



My Ann, my all my Angel Wife 
My dearest one my love my life 
I cannot sigh or say farewell 
But where thou dwellest I will dwell. 

Chrismatory of hallowed memories is Old Bruton 
Church and the churchyard is the veriest garden 
of peace — surely God walks therein ! In this sacred 
acre who shall say that death is lonesome ! 




Imperial Richmond 

IMPERIAL from the beginning, was 
Richmond. The beginning, to us made 
known, was after that kingly Ameri- 
can, Powhatan, among the hills, by 
the falls of the mighty river, then called 
in his honor, had established one of the 
many courts of his vast wilderness empire. 
Imperial in histories Indian, Colonial, Revolu- 
tionary, Confederate, and in ultimate peace, is the 
hill-crest city on the James. From the regime of 
the Royal Reds, the evolution of rule was to the 
first and only Capital of Virginia after statehood, 
and the second and last Forum of the Confeder- 
acy. Monarch hills, seven in number, as for im- 
perious Rome, provided the site. 
It is not to the present, rich in fulfillment and with 
a greater promise for the future, that my interest 

77 



at this moment attaches; but, to the opulent past 
— eager to trace from the time of savage enthrone- 
ment to civiHzed supremacy. 

Through the unmeasured domain of Powhatan, a 
tortuous stream came meandering down, about the 
wooded isles, gathering in volume and velocity, 
until, by leaps and bounds, it spread a magnificent 
breadth and length. It made its start in the moun- 
tains and its waters are fresh. But one thing can 
be complained of the James River and that is its 
color — not mistily blue or a burnished shield 
against the light, as is the York! nor yet a tawny 
tide over sands bleached to snow-white, as is fre- 
quently found in the South ; but turgid and yellow 
from the clay-worn banks, it matches the Missis- 
sippi and the '* Big Muddy," and never settles to 
transparency nor clears its face for the heavens' 
reflection. 

Along the Powhatan, which should shortly yield 
this compliment of name to an English King, and 
be forever after known as "The James," the Ad- 
venturers made their first settlement. They were 
out for gold. They did not wait to shake the wrin- 
kles from their clothes, nor stop until the newly 
arrived inhabitants of "James Citty" should feel 
themselves at home ; or, at least, safe by barricade 
from their unusual and too curious neighbors, 
when a party of the impatient men set sail up the 
river. Captain Christopher Newport was in the 
lead. Several pots of the precious metal were at the 
78 



end of the rainbow, which they believed they 
sighted ; while an outlet to the South Sea was the 
imaginary bridge which should pass them over. 
•^ They found, instead, this heathen emperor's 
throne; there, at the foot-hills, where the stream 
that had come down from the mountains, was 
tumbling and falling about in cascades J' The 
Jamestown landing was in May, the thirteenth 
day, and the year was 1607. The year and the 
month were the same when Newport's command 
reached the" Falls " ; the day was the twenty-first. 
C( Nothing came of this venture, which might be 
remarked of the majority of Captain Newport's 
efforts. Whenever he took the direction of affairs 
he usually met with ridiculous failure ^ Do not 
make the mistake of calling him "Sir," he was 
simply the captain of the vessel and evidently hired 
for this service by the company in London. Even 
three hundred years afterward, one reading the 
old chronicles, resents his dallying, selfish meth- 
ods and feels acute sympathy with those who suf- 
fered from his interference and left him labeled, 
"an idle, empty man." 

Two years later, when Captain John Smith was 
taking a hand in administrative policies, he con- 
fessed that: "The better to dissipate their Hu- 
mours and break up their Confederacies," he sent 
Captain Francis West, with one hundred and twenty 
men, to plant a new town. It appears that dissen- 
sions prevailed at Jamestown — each capitalized 

79 



letter of the quotation intimates the nettlesome 
state of affairs. Captain West was a weakling. When 
Smith followed to see them well placed, he met 
the faint-hearted gentleman by the way, returning 
to the mother settlement «^ He found the infant 
colony not at "The Falls," as he had advised, but 
"in a Place not only liable to the River's Inunda- 
tions, but also subject to many other Intolerable 
Inconveniences." The offshoot citizens were in a 
state of "Turbulency" to warrant the spelling 
with a big T. 

Immediately Smith set about trading with Pow- 
hatan for his place, just above, which had the ad- 
vantages of good location, an Indian fort, houses, 
and considerable land. For a bargain so desirable, 
a proportion of copper was offered and certain 
protection to Powhatan's people from their race 
enemies, the Manakins, who dwelt beyond the 
mountains. There are historians who claim that a 
small white lad, Henry Spelman, was included as 
good measure in this dicker. 

" Houses for lodgings, nearly two hundred Acres 
of Land, cleared and ready for Planting, with a 
Savage Fort, ready built, and prettily fortified with 
Poles and Barks of Trees, and sufficient to have 
defended them against all the Indians in the 
Country," reads like a true home-seeker's pros- 
pectus. Remembering their miserable plight, such 
inducements should have appealed to them as 
highly desirable and as offering "all the modern 
80 




The Flagr-Stone Path of the 01d£Churchyard— 5eepag'e 75 




Where lofty trees lock their branches in memorial arch 

above, on Church Hill, yet stands the cherished 

little sanctuary of Old St. John's— 5ec page 87 




The Shingled Roof, ruffled and turned by a rough flight of Time, fits 
Wing-Like down over the sides.— See page 86 



conveniences." But the South Sea country with 
its gold was the bauble which fancy dangled before 
their eyes, and they had no mind for the petty 
comfort and momentary advantage of a ready- 
made house and fort, even if the decorative scheme 
were '* Poles and Barks of Trees," to mortgage 
the future for to-day. To pledge themselves a power 
against the Manakins was, in their belief, to bar 
. the door to the land they were seeking, for they 
were of one opinion : that the Manakin region led 
to the South Sea. 

After remonstrating with them for nine days and 
with such persuasion and force as he deemed wise, 
Captain Smith, who was the recognized power by 
the Indians, turned back to Jamestown. No sooner 
had he set sail, so runs the dramatic story, than an 
assault was made upon the settlers, who were so 
affrighted that they made precipitate haste to be 
away, nor stopped for their cloaks and swords. 
This paraphernalia was specially prized by the 
pursuers. Less than half a league out their ship ran 
aground, and Smith, who was ever an emergency 
man, embraced the occasion for further remon- 
strance. The colonists were so terrorized that they 
gladly assented to any proposition which prom- 
ised protection, and thus the whimpering com- 
pany were carried to the "strongest and most 
pleasant place" that Captain Smith had seen in 
this country, and for this reason they called it 
"Nonsuch." The location was one of the resi- 

81 



dences of Powhatan, the Emperor, and was the 
beginning of Richmond. 

The Indians complained that their Enghsh pro- 
tectors were worse enemies than the Manakins 
themselves; that they stole their corn, broke open 
their houses, robbed their gardens and beat them, 
and while they, the Indians, had borne all for love 
of Captain Smith, they '* desired Pardon, if here- 
after they defended themselves." ^ The fractious 
again took up their wrangling to the end that 
" Nonsuch " was abandoned. 

Those who follow the misfortunes of the colonists 
along the James River, have a lasting impression 
of the wearying repetitions of factions, famine and 
massacre — of the thousands who came over with 
fresh hope, undaunted courage and the deathless 
illusion that with them all would be well; only to 
contribute to the constant decimation. It is easy, 
therefore, to understand how quite one century 
and a quarter more had slipped by from the time 
of the settlement of ''Nonsuch," before the pan- 
orama of events brought again to view the cluster- 
ing hills for special historical record. By this time 
they emerge from the unstable past with the In- 
dian name of *'Shoccoes." This year is set down 
as 1733, when William Byrd, the second of the 
masters of the splendid house of Westover to bear 
that name, developed a pet project to found two 
cities. He explains that the localities are naturally 
intended for marts, and that one shall exchange 
82 



the name of ''Shoccoes" for Richmond; while 
the other, at the head of the Appomattox, is 
the city of Petersburg. He fancifully continues: 
"Thus did we build not only castles, but cities 
in the air." 

While Sir William Berkeley was governor — in 
fact, the date is given, March 15, 1675-6, because 
Captain William Byrd had introduced one hun- 
' dred and twenty-two persons into the colony and 
later some negro slaves, he was rewarded by a 
grant of land, some seven thousand and more acres, 
beginning at the mouth of Shoccoes' Creek. Other 
grants followed these, all in the same locality, so, 
a later generation was indeed, possessed of suffi- 
cient paternal acres whereon to found a city — 
two of them. In 1742, by an act of the Assembly, 
Richmond was established a town in Henrico 
County and one of the perquisites was the "allow- 
ing of fairs to be held therein, on the lands of 
William Byrd, Esq., at the Falls of James River." 
H Chance it was, and not deliberate choice, which 
determined the first property owners of Richmond. 
That pleasure-loving gentleman who founded the 
city, at the same time instituted a lottery scheme 
for the distribution of the lots. Naturally, his 
friends were not all imbued with his enthusiasm 
and faith in the venture, and, when invited to 
invest, more as a courtesy and acknowledgment 
of his fine hospitality, they responded. They pur- 
chased the tickets which frequently were carelessly 

83 



thrust into waistcoat pockets or with the idle pa- 
pers of the desk — and forgotten. The possession of 
one of these tickets was all the evidence of owner- 
ship required for the lot of the corresponding 
number. Generations afterward there arose a series 
of complications; tickets lost, destroyed, never 
presented, and the rise in real estate made the ac- 
cidental finding of one of these a prize indeed. 
Finally it was arranged that all the unclaimed 
property should revert to the heirs of the Byrd 
family. 

Despite the crop uncertainties, Tobacco was King. 
It was facetiously said "to be in the mouth of al- 
most every man and boy, either for mastication, 
fumigation, inhalation, or discussion." 
The surplus of Captain Byrd's handsome crop was 
heaped in great warehouses, there on the James, 
where the well-selected site offered such excellent 
advantages for storage and future deliveries. 
The healthful and invitingly picturesque location, 
blended with the exigencies of war, to induce the 
removal of the Capital from Williamsburg to Rich- 
mond, during the Revolutionary struggle ^ The 
almost half century passed since the platting of the 
city had failed to make it more than a mean little 
town; as is shown by a letter of Mrs. Carrington's, 
which Bishop Meade published. The social dis- 
play must have been meager as compared with the 
distractions of the mimic English court, enthroned 
on the "Palace Green" of the Colonial Capital. 
84 



Concerning Richmond, Mrs. Carrington agrees 
that: 

It is indeed a lovely situation, and may at some future day be a 
great city, but at present will scarce afford one comfort of life. 
With the exception of two or three families, this town is made 
up of Scotch factors, who inhabit small tenements here and 
there, from the river to the hill, some of which looking, as 
Colonel Marshall observes, as if the poor Caledonians had 
brought them over on their backs, the weaker of whom were 
glad to stop at the bottom of the hill; others a little stronger 
proceeded higher, while a few of the strongest and boldest 
reached the summit, which once accomplished affords a situa- 
tion beautiful and picturesque. One of these sturdy Scots has 
thought proper to vacate his dwelling on the hill; and although 
our whole family can scarcely stand up all together in it, my 
father has determined to rent it as the only decent tenement on 
the hill. 

When two years later, in the winter of 1781, that 
traitor to the Patriot Cause, Benedict Arnold, 
marched at the head of the British troops upon 
Richmond and applied the torch, the real loss must 
have been in the planters' product rather than in 
the fine buildings and dwellings. He found but 
two hundred men to oppose him, for the best of 
the army had been sent to the aid of General 
Greene ; and, really, there were not enough of the 
Continentals to make a show. The fact, however, 
that Jefferson, who was then governor of the com- 
monwealth, did not muster a larger force and did 
not more stubbornly resist, has been a matter for 
contention for more than one hundred years. In the 
April following, a mere lad, with twelve hundred 

85 



of the Patriots, brought to a halt the troops, double 
his number, advancing, under General Phillips, 
upon Richmond, and forced them back to the hills 
of Petersburg ^ There, the boy commander, the 
Marquis de Lafayette, gave the salute of war; but 
his adversary, whom Jefferson had said was "the 
proudest man of the proudest nation on earth," 
was stricken with fever and then wrestling with 
death, the victor. A grave was made for General 
Phillips in the quaint little churchyard of "Old 
Blandford." 

Flame and sword have wrought with Time for 
change in the Imperial City. The miracle of mod- 
ern progress has burst the bounds of the seven 
hills and spread beyond. The mysterious thread of 
electricity winds and unwinds the shuttle of speed, 
until the two "cities in the air," promoted by 
Captain Byrd, are caught in the mesh ; and inter- 
woven, are the towns nestling along the river and 
resting on the sunny slopes. What is there left to 
mark the vanished past? Where are the haunts of 
the astral years? 

Thrust back by the presumptuous present, the new 
shops press forward to hide a low, squat building. 
The irregular stones of the walls refuse to yield 
another inch to the crowding traffic of Main 
Street. The shingled roof, ruffled and turned, by 
a rough flight of time, fits wing-like down over 
the sides. Two windows, in their rock setting, 
stare vacantly forth, and the single door, usually 
86 



ajar, is but a step up from the pavement. The 
worn threshold is the dividing Une between the 
long ago and the now. From their vantage place 
above, three dormer windows peep stealthily out 
from beneath their hoods and two stolid chimneys 
stand sentinel. A tablet by the door informs that 
Washington had headquarters here and there is 
the supplemental tradition that this old stone house 
is the oldest in Richmond. It has another boast: 
that it remained for generations in the possession 
of one family, before the fate of decrepit and su- 
perannuated buildings overtook it and it suffered 
the mortification of being posted " For Rent." 
This happened in 1858. The little old house, which 
in its day of pride and use never knew for its in- 
mates a swifter means of transportation than the 
sail, the chaise and the gig, now lends its empty 
walls to echo the whirr of steedless carriages, while 
level with its floors are the tracks for invisibly pro- 
pelled coaches. Within the house are being gath- 
ered mementoes, relics and treasures of hoary lang 
syne, and within this olden receptacle they will 
form a museum for the curious and inquiring of 
generations to follow. 

Where trees lock their branches in memorial 
arch above, where once was the residential quar- 
ter, aristocratic Church Hill, yet stands the cher- 
ished little sanctuary of old St. John's. In the midst 
of tremendous material and social changes, this 
survivor from an older period maintains a serene 

87 



and stately dignity. The angular white building, 
with its green blinds, leans hard against the square 
tower, a diminuendo spire •?* The marble slabs, 
which have served the double purpose of tribute 
to the dead and record for the living, incline slant- 
wise toward each other and the church ; not one 
is upright. Over the hillside, the stones emerge 
from a tangle of grass and wraith-like blooms, and 
many unmarked mounds there are, mutely elo- 
quent of the unknown. 

The age of the church is but guesswork since the 
records are missing ^ Its distinction, however, is 
not so much in long-standing as in well-standing; 
and in the fact that it furnished the platform for a 
glorious speech. The familiar pictures of the orator 
describe him as "Tall of figure, but stooping, with 
a grim expression, small blue eyes which had a 
peculiar twinkle." 

We are also advised that this young man, just 
twenty-nine, rode a lean horse. Jefferson said that 
he spoke as Homer wrote and that "he gave the 
first impulse to the ball of Revolution." It was in 
St. John's — the keeper will show you the pew — 
that the lean, tall, slightly stooping young man, 
under thirty, he who wore a "brown wig without 
powder, a peachblossom coat, leather knee breeches 
and yarn stockings," spake the thrilling, masterful 
words : " Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be 
purchased at the price of chains and slavery.? For- 
bid it. Almighty God. I know not what course 



t p 







/ 



St. John's Church. Hampton, Virginia— 5ee pag'e 103 




others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or 
give me death." 

While you are in the church your attention will 
be attracted to the graceful lines and modeling of 
the baptismal font, and since you have a touch of 
the antiquary fever, you will learn with pleasure 
that it is very old. It belonged first to the parish at 
Curl's Neck, on the James River. It was presented 
in 1826, and the claim for its age is in the hundreds 
of years, two, and some estimate it as nearer three. 
During the Civil War it was lost, and later recov- 
ered from soiTie slaves in a miserable hut. They 
were putting it to the practical but scarce religious 
use of preparing hominy therein. 
The oldest grave of which there is any record in 
St. John's, is that of Robert Rose, who departed 
this life in 1751 ^ The ponderous and exhaustive 
epitaph is herewith reproduced as an example of 
the vogue in tombstone literature: 

Here lyeth the body of Robert Rose, Rector of Albermarle 
Parish. His extraordinary Genius and Capacity, in all the poHte 
and useful Arts of Life, tho equalled by few were yet exceeded 
by the great goodness of his Heart. Humanity, Benevolence and 
Charity ran through the whole course of his Life. And was ex- 
erted with uncommon penetration and judgment upon their 
proper objects without Noise and Ostentation. In his Friendships 
he was warm and steady, in his Manners gentle & easy, in his 
conversation entertaining & instructive. With the most tender 
piety he discharged all the domestick duty of Husband Father 
Son and Brother. In short he was a friend to the whole human 
Race & upon that principle a strenuous Assertor and Defender 
' of Liberty. 

89 



This credential surely must have passed with Saint 
Peter ^ ^ 

I confess to never have had the proper appreciation 
of capital letters until I began the study of the old 
manuscripts and tombs. There is an autobiographi- 
cal epitaph in this churchyard which is most 
amusing in its haphazard use and mis-use of the 
capitals. Note how the significant article is dignified 
by the use of the big letter and the distinction 
denied the appellation of the Son of God, in the 
stone story of Abraham Shield, a native of Durham, 
Old England, a stone-cutter and brick-layer, who 
died in 1798, and evidently felt his days cut short 
but was manifestly submissive : 

When I was young and in my prime 
It pleased the Lord to End my Time 
And took me to A place of Rest 
where jesus Christ did think it best 

Another stone reads : 

Return my friends & cease to weep 
Whilst in Christ Jesus here I sleep 
Prepare yourself your soul to save 
There is no repentance in the grave 

Stop my friends as you pass by 
As you are now so once was I 
As I am now you soon must be 
Prepare yourself to follow me. 

This was graven in 1 826, and seems to have en- 
joyed quite a popular run. It is found in most of 
90 



the old Virginia graveyards and even scholarly 
Boston was attracted to its use. It is told that 
under such an inscription in one of the Boston 
cemeteries, some wag added the pertinent lines: 

To follow thee I am not content 
Unless I know which way you went. 

On the 24th day of June, 1786, with imposing 
ceremonies, a corner-stone was laid in Richmond. 
The site where this dedication took place has 
come down in history with a twin record of 
mirth and tragedy. No less distinguished a person 
than the daughter of Benjamin Franklin was the 
enthusiastic patroness of the project for an '* Acad- 
emy of Fine Arts, in the United States of America, 
established in Richmond, the Capital of Virginia." 
This ambitious title was bestowed by the founder 
and president. Chevalier, Quesnay de Beaure paire. 
At this time, Patrick Henry was Governor and the 
enterprise had enlisted his support and that of the 
elite of Richmond and many other cities. Evidently 
the Chevalier, Quesnay de Beaure paire was a 
dreamer of dreams, for the Academy which had its 
foundation laid in the 5786th year of light, evolved 
a theatre. The site became known as "Theatre 
Square ' ' and there was established the first play- 
house of Richmond. It was reserved for memora- 
ble scenes of patriotic celebration and a final 
holocaust. 

Within two years of the founding there was a 

91 



famous convention of sages, patriots and states- 
men, who there ratified the Constitution of the 
United States as framed in Philadelphia. So in- 
tense was the interest felt in the question itself and 
so renowned were those engaged in its discussion, 
that the theatre was thronged day and night, and 
forgetful of any and all discomforts of the oppres- 
sive throng, the highly wrought audience hung 
breathless upon the words of the speakers. Supreme 
occasion was that when James Madison, James 
Monroe, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, 
George Nicholson, Edmund Randolph, George 
Mason, Grayson, Innis, Lee and Patrick Henry 
were reasoning together concerning the mighty 
instrument of a New Republic. 
For several years the theatre which had its three- 
fold distinction as academy, forum and play-house, 
maintained its character and then was burned to 
the ground. Later a fine brick theatre was builded 
in the rear of the old Academy on Theatre Square 
and furnished the altar for an appalling sacrifice 
of human lives. It was the night after Christmas, 
1811, when the house was filled with the flower 
of the Capital City to witness two plays, "The 
Father of Family Feuds," and the curtain-raiser, 
*' Raymond and Agnes, or the Bleeding Nun." 
It was during the second play that the scenery 
caught fire from a chandelier and the awful 
tragedy ensued when seventy-two men, women 
and. children were burned to death; among them 
92 




It ^vas deemed that a Church, forever Dedicated to Divine Worship, would be a 
fitting Monument to the Memory of those ^vho Perished— 5ee page 93 




A Corner of Old Saint Paul's, Norfolk. Showing the 
Cannon Ball Embedded in the Wall— 5ee page 98 



were the Governor of the State, George W. Smith, 
United States Senator Venable, Benjamin Botts, a 
celebrated lawyer and his wife, together with 
many other ladies and gentlemen of the old Rich- 
mond families. Their names are engraved on the 
cenotaph in the south portico of the Church. 
It was deemed that a church, forever dedicated to 
divine worship, would be a fitting monument to 
the memory of those who perished. Robert Mills, 
who had designed the Treasury Building in 
Washington, was called to Richmond to draw the 
plan. It is an enormous octagon of stone, massive 
and singular in design. The memorial windows, 
the mural decorations, and the entire arrangement 
and appointments of the church, are most un- 
usual. Above the reredos is a realistic painting of 
the Resurrection Morning. The figures are all 
more than life size. In the subdued light of the 
sanctuary the three crosses on Calvary are seen in 
the distance and the three women at the tomb 
appear with most effective force. The ceiling of 
the lantern shows an angel heralding the " Ever- 
lasting Gospel." The figures in the panels of the 
dome represent the Four Evangelists and the 
Major Prophets. The church was finished in 
1814, and had among its worshippers many dis- 
tinguished men; with them was Chief Justice 
John Marshall. 

It is told that the massive silver baptismal basin, 
placed in the antique marble font, was first used 

93 



in the church at Jamestown. It is of curious shape, 
which by the provisions of the deed of gift, may 
never be changed. The entrance is through a 
portico, supported by great Doric columns and 
within this are the sacred ashes of the victims of 
the horrible lire. The sealed vault is just inside 
the portal to the " Monumental Church." 




Just Touching Upon Norfolk 

{HERE the Chesapeake Indians had 
once a favored hunting ground, is the 
site of that Virginia city which is now 
known as "The Mother-in-law of the 
Navy." 

It was in the year 1680, that the Vir- 
ginia Assembly authorized the purchase of fifty 
acres in lower Norfolk County. The owner was a 
certain Nicholas Wise; the purchase price was 
"ten thousand pounds of merchantable tobacco 
and cask" — fifty years had considerably advanced 
the prices of real estate in the Colonies ; for it was 
in 1623 that twenty-four dollars and a few glass 
beads, had secured the whole of Manhattan Island. 
That deal was put through by that very shrewd 
trader, the first of the Dutch Governors, Peter 
Minuit. And now, half an hundred acres in the 
tide-water territory of Virginia were bringing a 
94 



handsome price in the currency of the Colony ^ 
QThe weed, which was introduced for extensive 
cultivation by Governor Yeardley, within the first 
decade of settlement, became the staple of Vir- 
ginia; and the warrant why cities should be 
founded. To advance the carrying trade and con- 
centrate the business, this new town was located 
across from the mouth of the James River. It had 
its name first from the county, which, in turn, 
reverted back to the Mother Country — to that 
county in Old England which had as its capital 
the city of bloaters, which Dickens rendered im- 
mortal through his memories of the Peggotys, 
Little Em'ly and the woeful, doeful Mrs. Gum- 
midge ^ »^ 

And so, for a less amount of the precious plant 
than was afterward accounted a year's salary for a 
parson, the site of Norfolk was purchased. The 
modern city has been too valuable for purposes of 
commerce to withstand the over-sweeping tide of 
modern progress; not so very much of the past 
remains in evidence. He who goes a-seeking after 
the coast lines of old-time places is usually forced 
to trace them in dusty streets, walled in by brick 
and stone; for the greedy land continually en- 
croaches upon the sea until the new made terri- 
tory adds several blocks to the original sinuous 
shore. Particularly is this true of Norfolk, which 
is situated on one of the ravelled peninsulas which 
tasselate Hampton Roads. The waters of Black 

95 



Creek used to flow around about where the Court 
House now stands, and places now well inland 
once stood upon the brink of the stream. 
There is royal indication in the names of the 
streets, which even he who runs may gather. No 
one could doubt the derivation of Bute, York, 
James, Queen, Botetourt, Grandby, and Charlotte; 
or the suggested picture and pageantry of Plume 
Street. They carry an unwritten story of the ones 
for whom they were called and the episode or 
place which they commemorate. 
Norfolk has a dramatic memory for Lord Dun- 
more, the last but not the best of the Colonial 
Governors. After the fiasco at Williamsburg, when 
he had the powder removed from the Powder 
Horn, and had been forced to return the same 
and further found it wise to take to the English 
ship, lying in the York River, he went over to 
Norfolk and made that city his headquarters ^ 
Governor Dunmore fortified himself with such 
cannon as he could secure and bade defiance to the 
Committee of Safety, or any measures which they 
might adopt. This Committee of Safety had a 
string of illustrious names destined for immortal 
remembrance: Edmund Pendleton was the first 
President and others of the directory were : John 
Page, Richard Bland, Thomas Ludwell Lee, Paul 
Carrington, John Mercer, George Mason, Dud- 
ley Diggs, William Cabell, Carlton Braxton and 
John Tabb. Patrick Henry was the commander- 
96 



in-chief of the Virginia forces. C, Out from Nor- 
folk, about ten miles, at Great Bridge, Lord 
Dunmore, marshalling the Tories in Virginia, 
met those of the Patriots who had assembled there 
under the leadership of Colonel Woolford. It did 
not require more than one short half hour to 
bring victory to perch on the banner of the Vir- 
ginians. A remarkable feature of this first of the 
prominent events, leading up to the American 
Revolution, was the fact that it was a victory 
achieved without loss of life on the Patriot side. 
On New Year's day. Lord Dunmore, who was 
considerably amazed and much chagrined at the 
result of the Great Bridge encounter, determined 
to bombard Norfolk. After disturbing and un- 
settling the places along the Chesapeake, making 
open war and bringing wanton waste, the irate 
Governor made a warm call, with shot and shell, 
on the first day of a memorable year, 1776, upon 
the city of Norfolk. 

It is a contended point as to who applied the torch 
to the city. Some records hold Dunmore guilty, 
while others relate that the inhabitants, anticipat- 
ing his action and with the wish to deny him the 
satisfaction of being the instrument in the destruc- 
tion of the town, themselves started the fire. 
However that may be, Norfolk was burned and 
while the bombardment was on the citizens took 
refuge within the church. 

Walled in by places of commercial activity and 

97 



like an island of the past in the sea of the present, 
is Old St. Paul's, of Norfolk. It is a brave old 
sanctuary which stands on the street called Church. 
It had been built on the most traveled road leading 
out of the town. It provided a shelter for the terri- 
fied men, women and children, who fled there 
for protection from the cannon and shell of Dun- 
more' s fleet. It withstood the siege and is today 
standing, a revered and holy symbol of the right 
which is mighty and must prevail. It is the trophy 
of the initial war of the Colonists. It is the shrine 
of the past which offers to the visitors and the 
antiquarian an untiring interest. The Church is 
hung with a mantle of ivy and over each grave 
and every tomb are matted the thick green trap- 
pings of leaves. The old walls have been reinforced 
and a new tower has been added with rooms set 
apart for the use of the vested choir. Proving its 
staunchness and how well it withstood the siege, 
there is imbedded high up in its walls, one of the 
balls fired by the British on that tragic New Year's 
day. The ball fell from the socket which it made 
in the bricks and years afterward was replaced. A 
tablet tells the martial story. 

The quiet churchyard is truly God's Acre. Going 
in through the Church Street gate, just to the 
right of the walk, is a flat marble slab, which 
marks the grave of Elizabeth Bacon — not the wife 
of Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., The Rebel, but that of 
his relative, Nathaniel Bacon, Sr. Both of these 
98 



men married women named Elizabeth and this is 
generally believed to be that of the young English 
girl, the daughter of Sir Edward Duke, who, 
despite the opposition of her father, married Na- 
thaniel Bacon, who was later to figure so dramat- 
ically in Virginia history. He brought his young 
wife to America and they settled at Curl's Neck 
on the James River. Four stormy months were 
the period of the rebellion and then Elizabeth was 
left to mourn her fascinating husband, dead and 
buried no one can tell where. But this is not her 
grave, here under the wide-spreading shelter of 
the trees in Old St. Paul's; for "Betty" married 
again. She became the wife of Captain Jarvis who 
owned much land in Elizabeth City County and 
it was upon their holdings that Hampton was 
established the same year as Norfolk. Betty Bacon 
Jarvis sailed away with her captain and I am told 
that it is in Providence, R. L, that she sleeps in 
her narrow bed; far away from the scene of tur- 
moil, swift change and perilous undertaking, 
which she must have suffered in sharing the spec- 
tacular performances of her first husband. Eliza- 
beth, wife of Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., departed this 
life the second of November, 1691, in the 67th 
year of her age — so says the old slab, under the 
tree, beside the gate, in Old St. Paul's. 
The church was builded in 1739, and the oldest 
grave of which there is any record, lies close to the 
wall with the mutilated stone, rudely hacked and 

99 



worn by time into the crude outlines of a coffin. 
It is Dorothy Farrell who "heere Hes." Set in the 
clustering ivy by the door of the church, is the 
fragment of a tombstone which was brought from 
Weyanoke, on the James River, from the ruins 
of an old colonial church, and placed as a tablet 
on the walls of St. Paul's. The inscription is half 
obliterated but it records the death of one William 
Harris, who departed this life **ye 8th of March, 
1687-8," in the thirty-fifth year of his age. The 
skull and cross bones are carved beneath in mel- 
ancholy memory. 

Dear trophy of other days is Old St. Paul's: It 
was the first Mayor of Norfolk who contributed 
the grounds. His initials with the date of the 
building of the church, are wrought in with the 
brick work of the walls and at his death his body 
was buried in the churchyard. Within the sanc- 
tuary, which is cruciform, are four beautiful me- 
morial windows. The marble font is said to be a 
copy of the one given by '* King Carter " to one 
of the Virginia churches in 1734. The Holy table 
was copied from a very old one in Yorkshire, 
England, which bears the date of 1680. The font 
and the table were both the gifts of the late Mrs. 
Sarah F. Pegram. Another cherished treasure is 
an old mahogany chair in the vestry room. It was 
presented by Mrs. Miller, wife of the Reverend 
Benjamin M. Miller, once rector of St. Paul's. 
Mrs. Miller was the daughter of Col. Thomas 
100 




Set in the clustering ivy, by the door of the 
Church, is the fragment of a tombstone 
placed as a tablet—See page 100 + + 




The Norfolk Academy, Patterned After The Theseus at Athens— S'ee page 101 



M. Bayley, of Accomac County, Virginia, who 
had bought this chair in which John Hancock 
sat when he was signing the Declaration of In- 
dependence. There is too, an old vestry book, 
reaching back to 1749. It bears a record as follows: 
" 1751 — received into the vestry of Captain George 
Whitehall, commander of his Majesty's ship 
Triton, a silver plate as a compliment for his wife, 
being interred in this church." 
The Custom House and the City Hall are reck- 
oned with the oldest buildings of Norfolk and are 
examples of the style of architecture before it had 
been thought to turn a bridge upon end and make 
of it a skyscraper. They were builded nearly sixty 
j^ears ago. But far more interesting is the old 
Norfolk Academy, which really dates from 1804, 
when authorized by an act of the Assembly. The 
land was originally set aside for a rectory for St. 
Paul's, but, after the Revolution it was diverted to 
the present purpose. Very fine is the setting, on 
the corner of Charlotte and Banks Streets, where 
in an enormous green four hundred feet square, 
stands the fine old building patterned after the 
Theseus of Athens, a splendid specimen of the 
Grecian Doric. 

There is a treasured memory of the visit of the 
Irish poet, Thomas Moore, when he occupied a 
miserable little dwelling now given over to the 
demands of business, but still standing at the foot 
of Main Street. The Great Dismal Swamp is near 

101 



enough to Norfolk to have excited the HveUest 
interest in Moore and to have inspired with its 
weird legends and impenetrable thickets, the poem 
which introduces Lake Drummond, with its most 
unscientific basin. Moore's lines begin with a 
shivering suggestion : 

They made her a grave too cold and damp 

For a soul so warm and true ! 

And she's gone to the lake in the Dismal Swamp 

Where all night long by a fire-fly lamp 

She paddles her light canoe ! 

Norfolk has very much of the modern to interest 

and much more of the ancient days to fascinate — 

this little sketch is just touching upon Norfolk — 
a mere shred of its history. 



St. John's Church, Hampton, Virginia 

[IRST foot-prints — usually buried in 
ashes and over-builded by the progress 
of repeating years — I^ was seeking to 
retrace these in Hampton, Virginia, 
when I came suddenly upon this sacred 
bit of the past, in the cramped thor- ^ 
oughfare of Queen Street. Here a majestic weep- 
ing-willow stands, sentinel-like, calling a halt to 
the importunate present, commanding back the 
crowding stores and waving aside the noisy traffic. 
102 




It drops from its huge arms the trailing tassels of 
its foliage to screen the vulgar gaze of a curious 
world; at the iron gate it draws back its fringed 
folds that those really interested may enter there. 
From without the railing, a hand stretched through 
may rest upon a grave so near, to the clamorous 
cry of the city, sleep the unheeding dead of St. 
John's churchyard. 

I wandered in and out among the graves wishing 
for some one to give me information v/ith refer- 
ence to the historic plat. I had heard that here 
was the third oldest of the Episcopal Churches in 
America; that the walls had stood since 1656; 
antedating by fifty years "Old Trinity," and 
builded fully one hundred and fifty years before 
the edifice now standing at the head of Wall 
Street. The grant of the "Queen's Farm " to the 
English Church on Manhattan Island, was the 
gift of Queen Anne in the remnant years of 1600, 
while "EHzabeth City Parish" was established 
the span of near one century earlier, in 1615. 
I came upon a man doing the mason's work in a 
new-made grave. He was carrying on an animated 
conversation with a woman friend who stood 
watching him. I stopped to ask him if he could 
give me the history of the church. 
"No'm, I can't," he replied, "but, thar's a nig- 
ger 'round here that knows more about this here 
church than anybody — he jest knows all thar is to 
know, I reckon." 



103 



Striking his trowel upon the ground by way of 
emphasis, he enthusiastically added : 
'* Bolivar kin tell you more about this here church 
than George Washington — you jest send for Boli- 
var — thar goes one of his children now — Hi ! 
look' y here !" he shouted and gesticulated with 
his trowel, to a little mulatto child playing near 
the edge of the grounds. '*Here, ain't you one of 
Bolivar's children ?" 
" Yaas Sir," she idly answered. 
*' W'U you cum here; you go and tell your father 
thar's sum'un here wants to see him." 
" I kaint, I'se got sumfin else to do." 
'*Sure, you mind what I tell you — go tell your 
father thar's sum'un waitin' here." 
The little girl ran along and the man explained 
to me that Bolivar is " a yaller nigger with a slick 
tongue." 

When I intimated my fear that froin such a source 
the information might not be reliable, he assured 
me that Bolivar was to be depended upon for the 
facts. 

While I waited, he and his companion resumed 
their talk, and so I learned that only for the de- 
scendants of the families buried therein, is the sod 
of St. John's churchyard ever overturned. From 
their gossip I gathered about the open grave the 
threads of a tender tale of loving, wooing, win- 
ning, death-parting and the bitter grief of a young 
widowed heart. 
104 



"Wall," looking toward the sun, *'I reckon it's 
about time for me to knock off," 
'' What time do you quit ?" inquired the woman. 
"Wall, five o'clock is schedule time; but, I jest 
knock off any old time — y' see, I'm working for 
myself." 

"Not now, I hope," she answered. 
"Wall, no; not jest this here piece of work." 
With that they both laughed ; then he scrambled 
out of the pit and they went away. 
Alone in the fading light, by the empty grave, my 
tearful sympathy went to seek that one who on 
the morrow should stand there desolate, bereft. 
" You wish to see me, maam ? " 
I turned and straightway knew that it was Bolivar. 
I followed him to the vestibule. He opened the 
doors with a flourish and bade me enter. He be- 
gan a recital of the history of St. John's Church. 
I interposed a question or two, but, with due 
deference, he advised me that he would "relate 
the history of dis church," and if after he had 
finished I had any questions to ask, he would be 
pleased to answer them, signifying that his record 
fully covered the ground. I dropped to a seat and 
listened. Bolivar was very conscious of the dignity 
of his serious calling; and, standing a few pews in 
front of me, with his eyes cast toward the ceiling, 
and his hands clasped before him, he made his 
recital. 

I was so interested in the manner of the man and 

105 



his evident attachment and veneration for the old- 
time structure, that I became w^holly absorbed, 
and quite forgot to pay the sHghtest attention to 
the facts of history embodied in his recitation. 
**Can you say that again, BoHvar ?" I inquired. 
"Yaas'm. I reckon I repeats it many times as 
high as fifty times a day." 

* ' Will you say it again for me, Bolivar, word for 
word, and let me take it down ? I want that 
speech of yours." 

** Yaas'm. Ef you'll come here eny day an' bring 
yo' paper and pencil, I'll say it slow and easy-lik', 
and you kin write it down." 

*' How will to-morrow do, at eleven o'clock ? I 
asked ^ ^ 

' ' No, dat won' t do, " he said, ' ' for dey' 11 be holdin' 
ob a funeral here at dat hour; but," thoughtfully, 
**yo' come to-morrow afternoon at two o'clock." 
Bolivar had a keen sense of dramatic effect, and 
he continued: 

"No, yo' better come at haf pas' two o'clock to- 
morrow afternoon. De youn' lady will be here a 
practicin' ob de organ, an' with yo' settin' right 
ober dar in President Tyler's pew, I'll say dis 
histry fob yo', word fob word, an' it am de truf, 
lady." f^ 0^ 

That was an appointment which I could not fail 
to keep. At the stated hour I found Bolivar wait- 
ing to assist me from the car. He conducted me 
into the church and led me to President Tyler's 
106 



pew. Without knowing of the pre-arranged role, 
the young lady was at the organ. Bolivar's pro- 
gram was complete. 

"First, I wants to tell yo', lady, dat my name 
ain't Bolivar, dat's jest a nickname. My name's 
R-i-d-d-i-c-k — Riddick Watson," and he carefully 
spelled the first name in order that there might be 
no future error. Assuming the solemn mien, as of 
yesterday, Riddick began his tale as follows: 
" I am pleas' to tell yo' dat yo' has foun' a church 
wid a sexton what am proud ob his charge. I hav' 
liv' in a stone's throw ob des walls foh thirty-seven 
years ob my lif and I'm fifty-seven years ole. I've 
acted as sexton twenty-four years, nine months 
and eight days — yaas, dis am the eighth day ob de 
month; and come nex' January, I'll be twenty- 
five years sexton ob dis church ob de second set- 
tlemen' on Virginny soil." 

** Dis is Elizabeth City County, Hampton, Vir- 
ginny. De first buildin' was called Elizabeth City 
Parish, and was 'rected in 1615. I dun no whether 
it was a log house or what. I feels sorry when I 
has to tell yo' lady, dat only de walls is all dat is 
lef ob de ole buildin' what was 'rected in 1656, 
an' attached on to de same old parish, but called 
St. John's Church. De woodwork was 'stroyed 
from it in 1776, an' again in 1813; set fire by de 
British each time ; but, de walls stood each time. ' ' 
*'I am prepared to give yo' de day and de hour, 
when by command of General McGruder, de 

107 



church was de third time 'stroyed by fire. On de 
nineteen day of Angus', 1861, between eight and 
nine o'clock ob de night, de town ob Hampton 
was burned by our own people — de confederates — 
an' dey wasn't anything lef standin' in Hampton 
'cept de walls ob de ole St. John's Church an' the 
cote house walls, and de walls ob Mr. Kennon 
Whiting's house on the lower end of King Street." 
" De church den laid in public ruins from de 
nineteen of Angus' in '61, up entil April, '67; 
wid de blue sky showin' froo de roof in de day, 
and de stars at night, if not cloudy, wid a public 
road from Queen Street enterin' in at de south 
do' and passin' out froo de north do' ob de church, 
reachin' Lincoln Street, which was about the dis- 
tance of seben hundred an' fifty feet. Yo see, dar 
was no way to drive 'roun' because ob de railin's 
ob iron about de graves. An' here dey was a drivin' 
of horse carts, an' ox carts, an' haulin' ob de wood 
an' de coal an' eny kine of traffic froo de do's ob 
dis ole church. Dis las'ed up entil 1868. Den de 
hammer and de nails begin to ring, an' we had a 
roof back on dese ole walls; makin' de fourth 
roof on dis church; 'kase, yo' see dey mus' o' had 
a roof on de fust church here, and de church has 
three times been 'stroyed by fire, so I make it dat 
dis is de fourth roof ober dis church. All de im- 
provements has been made sence by de flesh-coat- 
ing ob de walls and de placin' ob de stained glass 
an' de 'morial windows. De passin' froo de ruins 
108 



ob de church was stopped by Bishop Whittle ; an' 
dese walls has stood two hundred and forty-nine 
years." «^ ^ 

'' I feel jes as proud ob de church as ef I owned 
ebery brick and nail in it. Dis is considered de third 
ol'est Episcopal church in dis country. Hampton 
was settled in 1610, three years after Jamestown, 
an' was de second ol'est parish, 1615. 
"We has a 'morial tablet put here in 1903, rep- 
resenting twenty-one names ob de ole Colonial 
clergymens. Dat pew yo' settin' in, de fourth on 
de lef' from de chancel, was President Tyler's spot 
and position in dis church. De pew nex' back ob 
yo' was Dr. Semple's, a gemmen ob de vestry an' 
warden ob dis church for ober fifty years — yo' will 
obserbe de tablet on de wall. President Tyler's ole 
summer residence is 'roun' de creek from Hamp- 
ton on de right, de second house." 
** De ole 'munion service was presented by de 
King to dis Church in 1619. We keeps it fer safety 
in de care ob de senior warden, an' ebery third 
Sunday in de month an' de first Sunday, it is car- 
ried here alon' wid de new set, but we don't use 
it no mo'. We also had a bell presented by de 
Queen, but it was 'stroyed in de fire of '61. De 
ol'est grave in dis cemetery is now standin' to show 
fo' itsel'; it is Captain M. Wilson, 1701; eny 
older den dis has been 'stroyed an' los' sight ob." 
**Now, lady, I hab give yo' de histry ob dis 
church, word for word; dese facts are my own 

109 



experiments, 'ceptin' what Bishop Whittle and 

Bishop Meade done tole me." 

*' Riddick, I would like to have your picture with 

this old church," I ventured when he quickly 

responded : 

" Yaas'm, ef yo' don min' I'd lik' to have it tak'n 

out in de churchyard. Yo' see, dey done giv' me 

a lot in dis here yard and I keeps it all clean an* 

prutty an' set out wid flowers an' vines, an' ef yo' 

don't min' I'd Hk' to have yo' take my picture 

right out dare a pintin' to my firs' wif s grave." 




110 



So here then endeth the volume entitled SHREDS 
AND PATCHES OF HISTORY, as written by 
Mildred Beatty Pierce, and the whole done 
into a book by The Roycrofters at their Shop, ^ 
hich is in East Aurora, New York, mcmvi/ .r:^" ^ 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 443 654 4 % 



